Women’s health concern in Jordan: knowledge, practice and barriers toward cervical cancer screening
International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare
ISSN: 2056-4902
Article publication date: 1 December 2021
Issue publication date: 28 June 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Cervical cancer (CC) is one of the most important health issues faced by women worldwide. The purpose of this study is to identify Jordanian women’s knowledge, barriers and measures pertaining to risk factors and screening choices of CC (Pap smear tests).
Design/methodology/approach
This study applied a cross sectional design by collecting data from a convenient sample of 200 women between 20 and 70 years of age in health and public centers in Jordan. Data was then analyzed using the descriptive statistical tools of SPSS, version 21.
Findings
The findings revealed that 55.5% of the participants had no information about the Pap smear, and 75% did not know the risk factors. Moreover, 50% of the sample did not know where to take the test, and 50% reported a lack of encouragement from the husband to undertake the test. More than half of the participants (56.5%) expressed fear that cervical screening would be a painful examination even though they reported not having any previous experience with the test.
Originality/value
Based on these findings, public education about CC screening is essential, including advertising and a campaign similar to the breast cancer awareness programs in Jordan, as a way of encouraging early screening to improve the health of women.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Author contributions: Roqia Saleem Maabreh and Mohammad Nazzal Shloul conceived of the presented idea and they developed the study and its statistical analysis. Raya Yousef Al-Husban wrote the methodology and the discussion sections and rewrote the whole manuscript. Noha M Al-Shdayfat did the editing and the formatting of the paper according to the journal style.All authors discussed the results and contributed to the final manuscript.All authors acknowledge the Jordanian women for their valuable participation in this project.Conflict of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.
Citation
Maabreh, R.S., Al-Husban, R.Y., Al-Akash, H.Y. and Al-Shdayfat, N. (2023), "Women’s health concern in Jordan: knowledge, practice and barriers toward cervical cancer screening", International Journal of Human Rights in Healthcare, Vol. 16 No. 2, pp. 128-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHRH-04-2021-0085
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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