knowledge attitude and practice of women in shiraz about cervical cancer and pap smear 2009

background: cervical cancer is one of the prevalent and mortal cancers. the aim of the study is to assess knowledge, attitude and practice of women toward this cancer and pap smear. methods: we carried out a cross-sectional study among 402 women through a questionnaire with 5 socio-demographic parameters and 14 questions about knowledge, attitude and practice. we aimed to know how knowledge, attitude and practice are affected by socio-demographic status and how practice is affected by knowledge and attitude. results: the mean score was 4.09. knowledge and age did not correlate directly. old aged women had the best knowledge. as the number of children rose, knowledge deteriorated, vice versa about the age of marriage and education. the clerks were better than housewives and businesswomen. just 3.5% did not consider the regular pap as necessary (with the lower educational level). almost 99% intended to get more information. the minority (28.1%) had the incorrect attitude toward the curability of the cancer. most of the women referred to do pap due to health center personnel’s advice. about 80% had undesired practice. discussion: the educated ones had more appropriate and optimistic incorrect attitude compared to the uneducated ones. as more years pass from the age of marriage, practice gets worse. all the newly married women had the desired practice, correct attitude and intended to get more information. all the women who knew it unnecessary had undesired practice. women with the desired practice had 9% more correct attitude and 9% more optimistic incorrect attitude compared to the undesirably practicing ones. totally, practice is not much influenced by attitude. keywords: knowledge; attitude; practice; cervical cancer; pap smear; screening references 1. world cancer research fund/ american institute for cancer research. food, nutrition, physical activity, and the prevention of cancer: a global perspective. washington, dc: aicr, 2007. 2. national cancer registry report [compact disk]. islamic republic of iran ministry of health and medical education, deputy of health. tehran; feb, 2005. 3. kumar v, abbas a, fausto n, mitchell r. robbins basic pathology. 8th ed. philadelphia: w.b. saunders elsevier, 2007. 4.  behtash n,tehranian a. an overview of screening tests in cervical cancer. journal of medical council of i.r.i. spring 2001; 19(1):49-57. 5. azizi f, janghorbani m, hatami h. epidemiology and control of common disorders in iran (secound edition): khosravi institute publication, tehran, 2004 winter, isbn 964-8565-14-7:232-5. 6. monsonégo j. prevention of cervical cancer screening progress and perspectives. presse med. 2007 j; 36: 92-111. 7. deputy of health of iranian ministry of health and medical education. guideline for doing pap smear, managed health care manual (33). no. 2/148659 sh. 8. harland austin. an epidemic averted through medical screening. j med screen .2005; 12:1-2. 9. lynge e, clausen l, guignard r, poll p. what happens when organization of cervical cancer screening is delayed or stopped? j med screen 2006; 13:41-6. 10. jamison dt, mosley wh, measham ar, bobadilla jl. disease control priorities in developing countries. world bank report 12384. new york: oxford, 1993. 11. www.sci.org.ir/portal/faces/public/sci/sci.negahbeiran/sci.population. accessed august 14th, 2009. 12. www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ir.html. accessed august 14th, 2009. 13. sadighi j, vahdani nia ms, khodabandeh a, jarvandi f. cervical cancer: knowledge of women and the effect of educational materials. payesh journal january 2005; 4(1). 14. khojasteh f. the study of knowledge, attitude and practice about cervical cancer and pap smear of women that visited zahedan health center clinics. scientific medical journal. august 2004; (41):1-9. 15. ezem bu . awareness and uptake of cervical cancer screening in owerri, south-eastern nigeria. ann afr med. 2007; 6(3):94-8. 16. gharoro ep , ikeanyi en . an appraisal of the level of awareness and utilization of the pap smear as a cervical cancer screening test among female health workers in a tertiary health institution. int j gynecol cancer. 2006; 16(3):1063-8. 17. barghouti ff , takruri ah , froelicher es . awareness and behavior about pap smear testing in family medicine practice. saudi med j. 2008; 29(7):1036-40. 18. haidinger g, waldhoer t, vutuc c. self-reported pap smear screening in austria. wien med wochenschr .2008; 158/7-8: 222-6. 19. oscarsson mg , wijma be , benzein eg . 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