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Category: Volume 06 Issue 08 August 2018
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Title: Is prevention and control of cervix cancer a priority amongst future health care providers in India?

Authors: Ms. Disha Waghmare, Dr Pallavi Anil Uplap

 DOI:  https://dx.doi.org/10.18535/jmscr/v6i8.90

Abstract

Despite being a preventable cancer burden, cervix cancer remains an important public health problem in India. Major reasons behind this are lack of awareness both in the health care providers and community as well as availability of the resources at all the levels of the existing health care system. Present study explores level of knowledge, attitude and practices about cervix cancer prevention and control among medical and nursing students of a medical college in Mumbai, India.

Randomly selected 72 (48%) medical and 78 (52%) nursing students from a medical college in Mumbai who have been taught about cervix cancer were included after obtaining written informed consent. Strict confidentiality was maintained during data collection and analysis. All necessary permissions were obtained.

There were significant differences in the medical and nursing students as far as knowledge about presenting symptoms of cervix cancers (P= 0.016), cause of cervix cancer (P= 0.000), availability of Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine (P= 0.000) respectively. Though 12(27.27%) of female medical and 17 (27.86%) of nursing students have perceived risk of getting cervix cancer, only 3(4.16%) medical students and 7 (8.97%) of nursing students have completed HPV vaccination.

A gap existed between knowledge, attitude and practices of undergraduate nursing and medical students. Well sensitized health care providers can play an important role in the cervix cancer prevention and control activities in our country.

Keywords: cervix cancer, prevention, control, future health care providers, India

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Corresponding Author

Dr Pallavi Anil Uplap

Associate Professor, Department of Community Medicine, Grant Government Medical College, Mumbai

Phone Number:+91-9757017082, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.