Exploration of Women's Perspective on Cervical Cancer: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer in women in the world. All women who are sexually active can be at risk for cervical cancer. Cervical cancer is almost entirely preventable, if detected and treated at an early stage. Objective: This study aimed to explore women's perspective on cervical cancer till proper recognition and more comprehensive information on the experiences; understanding and viewpoint of clients are provided. Methods: In this qualitative content analysis study, 56 married women aging 17-60 years were selected among patients attending prenatal care, gynecology, and family planning clinics of Alzahra educational hospital in Rasht city, Iran during 2012-2013. Data was collected through 8 focus group discussions. The participants were selected through purposive sampling and considering maximal variation. The inclusion criteria for women were as follows: volunteer to participate in the study, married, Iranian nationality, proficiency in Farsi, no history of mental disorders or physical disabilities based on participants' self report and interviewers' observations. Each interview session lasted 1-1.5 hours. All interviews were continued up to data saturation. All interviews were recorded by means of a digital sound recorder. Also, the non verbal interactions were recorded by the secretary and were used during data analyzing and extracting the codes. After each interview, the recorded data was transcribed and typed verbatim and were analyzed concurrently. Data analysis was done based on steps recommended by Graneheim and Lundman. To ensure rigor in this study, the criteria stated by Guba and Lincoln were considered. In this study, all ethical considerations related to human participation and qualitative research were considered. In this regard, oral and written permissions were obtained from the participants for participating in study and recording their interviews. Results: Mean age of participated women was 36.5 years. Many participants (40.6 %) had incomplete secondary education, 15.5 % were illiterate, 39.1 % had completed secondary education, and 4.3 % had an academic degree. Among the participants 92.8 % were housewives, 78.3% were residing in the city, 14.5 % never had a pregnancy, 29% had no children, 24.6% had one child, and 26.1% had two children or more. The participants’ viewpoints about cervical cancer were yielded to 275 primary codes and 3 main categories: “Weak health information”, "Negligence of disease", and "The necessity for support and care". Conclusion: Understanding the women's experiences, perspectives and points of view about one of the most prevalent and preventable cancers in women can have potential benefits such as exploring the clients' educational and counseling needs, common challenges and barriers, and support facilitative factors. On the other hand, based on our findings, the health policy makers can be encouraged to develop long term evidence based on educational interventions according to the health needs of society, particularly women