Women's pap smear status: The effect of hope and life satisfaction

This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted to examine the effect of having a pap smear test on hope and life satisfaction. A total of 263 women in Kocaeli City Hospital Obstetrics and Gynecology Outpatient Clinics participated in the study. A demographic information form consisting of a total of 11 questions about the sociodemographic characteristics of women and pap smear collection, LLS and ESS were used to collect data. The data obtained in this study were analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, version 22.0 (SPSS INC., Chicago, IL, USA). Frequency and percentage statistics were used to determine the descriptive characteristics of the women included in the study, and mean and standard deviation statistics were used to control the scale. Skewness and Kurtosis values were analyzed to determine whether the study variables were normally distributed. The statistical significance level in the study was p<0.05. Among the women included in the study, 77.2% (203) knew about the pap smear test. The rate of those who had a pap smear test was 51.0% (134). As a result of the study, women who had a pap smear test had high levels of hope and life satisfaction. It is recommended that information about cervical cancer screening tests should be disseminated and maintained, information about the HPV vaccine used to prevent cervical cancer should be provided, the Ministry of Health should add the HPV vaccine to the vaccination calendar, and more studies should be conducted to increase the rate of pap smear tests.