Women's health perceptions, cervical cancer and pap smear test health beliefs

Objective: This study was conducted to examine women's health perceptions, cervical cancer and pap smear test health beliefs. Method: The universe of the study was consisted of female trainees between the ages of 30-70 who attended the courses opened within the Muğla Public Education Center in the 2017-2018 academic year (N: 1021). In the study, the number of samples known to the universe was calculated as 279 and this number was increased and 400 women were included in the study. The data were collected through "Descriptive Information Form", "Health Perception Scale" and "Health Belief Model Scale For Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test". Data were analyzed by using SPSS 22.0 package program. Data normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov) distributions were examined, parametric tests (t-test and ANOVA) were used because they showed normal distributions. The relationship between scale point averages was evaluated by Pearson correlation analysis. Results: The average age of women was 43.67±8.62. Health Perception Scale total score average was 51.03±7.28, when the subscale score averages were examined, the highest score average was taken from the "Importance of Health" (11.76±2.10) sub-dimension, followed by "Self-Awareness" (11.14±2.13), "Control Center" (16.22±4.26) and "Certainty" (11.9±3.43) sub-dimension, respectively. Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test sub-dimension average scores were examined, the highest average score was obtained from "Benefit Motivation" (33.79±5.58) dimension, followed by "Health Motivation (10.28±2.32), "Caring" ( 23.66±6.40), "Sensitivity" (7.48±2.63) and "Barriers" (30.8±9.03) sub-dimensions were followed. There was a positive correlation between the total mean score of Health Perception Scale and Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test Health Motivation and Benefit Motivation sub-dimensions, a negative significant correlation between the "Barriers" sub-dimension (p<0.05). Conclusion: This study shows that the perception of health of women participating in the study is good. Cervical cancer and pap smear test-related benefits-motivation beliefs evaluated as high, perception of the barriers were evaluated as low and this results evaluated as positive. In accordance with this informations, it is recommended to conduct intervention studies aimed at increasing women's perceptions of caring, sensitivity and reducing perceptions of barriers.