Perspectives of women in reproductive period for cervical cancer scans and the factors influencing their perspectives

This study is a descriptive one which has been performed in order to assess the health perspectives of women in the reproductive period for the cervical cancer scans, who apply to the Yıldırım Beyazıt University Atatürk Education and Research Hospital, Maternity Polyclinic and the factors influencing their perspectives. In this study, Simple Random Sampling Formula has been adopted to calculate the volume of the targeted sample. The item has been calculated to be minimum 267 with 95% confidence and was completed with minimum 300 subjects. Results of the research were obtained through individual diagnosis form and cervical cancer and Pap smear test health belief model scale (HBMS). Results of the normality test, the differences between the groups were examined and Mann Whitney U test was used for the variables not distributed normally in binary groups. For the groups with more than two subjects not have variables distributed normally Kruskal Wallis H Test amended by Bonferroni was used. Assessment of categoric variables Chi-Square test analyzes was used. The relevance level was used to be p≤0.05 in the examination of the differences between the groups. As a result of the study, it was found out that 75.0% of the women heard Pap smear test before, 48.7 % had undergone Pap smear test. 51.4% of the women who has undergone Pap smear test expressed that they had the test with irregular periods. Most of the women stated that they heard about the smear test from the health staff (51.7%). Having no health complaints (28.3%) and not having adequate information about the test (21.0%) were among the reasons for not undergoing the Pap smear test. It was found that the lower dimension average scores of the women obtained from the cervical cancer and Pap smear test HBMS varied from 7.7 ± 2.3 to 33.5 ± 9.3. When the lower dimension average scores of women from the HBMS were examined, the perception of usefulness was high but the sensitivity and health motivations were low. As a result of the research, it was suggested that the researches oriented for the reasons of women for not undergoing reproductive health / sexual health scanning tests and assessing the health perspectives of women were given more importance, the platforms which direct women to early diagnosis at the health centers were formed, the perspectives which hindered the expected protective health attitude were determined and the needed actions were taken to minimize these factors. Keywords; Level of knowledge, reproductive period, risk factors, cervical cancer, health perspectives, health belief model.