Knowledge, attitudes and practice about pap smear test among women living in Bojnourd, North East of Iran: a population-based study.

BACKGROUND The aim of the study was to assess the extent of knowledge, attitudes and practical behavior of women in Bojnourd conerning the Pap smear test. MATERIALS AND METHODS This cross-sectional and population-based study was conducted with 1000 Iranian women aged 15-60 years old in Bojnourd city. In order to collect the data, a validated questionnaire was provided in four sections covering demographic information and questions about knowledge, attitude and practice about the Pap smear. Statistical analysis was performed with the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (version 17.0) applying a 0.05 significance level. RESULTS Evaluation of knowledge showed that 146 women (14.6%) had very weak, and 594 women (59.4%) had weak knowledge. In contrast, most of the women studied, 873 (87.3%), had a positive attitude toward the Pap smear test. According to the findings, 375 women (37.6%) had done this test so far. Findings indicated that the extent of knowledge had a meaningful relationship with the attitude status (p<0.0001). Also, there was a meaningful relationship between knowledge and practice, so that the weakest practice was seen in women who had weak knowledge (61.1%), (p<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS According to findings of this research, most women do not have an appropriate knowledge about the necessity of having the Pap smear test, so that only a low percentage of women had undergone this test.