• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.9
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• pp.4273-4279
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• 2012

Introduction: The aim of the study was to determine the breast, cervical, and colorectal cancer screening rates and the influencing factors in a group of Turkish females. Methods: This descriptive study was conducted in a School of Nursing. The study sample consisted of 603 females who were the mothers/neighbors or relatives of the nursing students. Data collection forms were developed by the investigators after the relevant literature was screened and were used to collect the data. Results: Of the women aged 30 and over, 32.8% had undergone a pap smear test at least once in their life. Of those aged 50 and over, 48.2% had undergone mammography at least once and FOBT had been performed in 12% of these women in their life. Having heard of the screening tests before, knowing why they are done, and having information on the national cancer screening program were important factors influencing the rates of women having these tests done. Discussion: The results of this study show that the rates of women participating in national cervical, breast, and colorectal cancer screening programs are not at the desired levels. Having heard of the screening tests before, knowing why they are done, and having information on the national cancer screening program were important factors influencing the rates of women having these tests done. It is suggested that written and visual campaigns to promote the service should be used to educate a larger population, thus increasing the participation rates for cancer screening programs.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.849-852
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• 2013

Background: Cancer of the uterine cervix is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide. Industrialized countries have dramatically reduced the incidence of mortality from cervical carcinoma in the last 50 years through aggressive screening programs utilizing pelvic examinations and Papanicolaou (Pap) smears but it still remains a major problem in the developing world. Objectives: This study was performed to determine knowledge, attitude and practice of Pap smear as a screening procedure among nurses in a tertiary hospital in north eastern India. Material and Methods: This cross sectional study was carried out with a questionnaire survey covering the socio demographic factors, knowledge, attitude and practices about Pap smear screening among 224 nurses in Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal, Manipur, India during December 2011. Results: Two hundred and twenty one participants (98.6%) had heard about cervical carcinoma but 18.3% lacked adequate knowledge regarding risk factors. Knowledge about the Pap smear was adequate in 88.8% of the respondents. Out of these, only 11.6% had Pap smear at least once previously. The most common reasons for non-participation in screening were lack of any symptoms (58.4%), lack of counselling (42.8%), physician does not request (29.9%) and fear of vaginal examination (20.5%). Conclusion: Although knowledge of Pap smear as a screening procedure for cervical cancer is high, practice is still low. The nurses who should be responsible for opportunistic screening of women they care for are not keen on getting screened themselves. If we can improve the practice of Pap smear screening in such experts, they should be able to readily provide appropriate and accurate information and motivate the general population to join screening programs.

• Journal of Korea Association of Health Promotion
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.27-37
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• 2004

Background 'For many years, the Papanicolaou smear has been used to detect pre-malignant and malignant disease of the cervix. Although cervical cytology screening programmes have result in the reduction of cervical cancer incidence and mortality, Pap smear have been subjected to intense scrutiny and criticism in recent years. So cervicography is introduced. Cervicography is an adjunct method of cervical cancer screening intended to complement Papanicolaou smear. Cervicography involve obtaining and evaluating a photographic image of the cervix. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the efficacy of Papanicolaou smear and cervicography in cervical cancer screening. Materials & Methods : This study population was of 74 women, who visited department of obstetrics & Gynecology, Korea association of Health Promotion Chung-nam branch from January, 20O2 to October, 2003. All patients were taken Pap smear before cervicography, and then two cervicography was obtained with applying5% acetic acid. Those women in whom abnormalities were detected by either test subsequently obtained histologic specimen. Results : 1. The sensitivity and the specificity of Papanicolaou smear was 92.1% and 72.7%respectively.2. The sensitivity and the specificity of cervicography was 88.9% and 54.5% respectively. The false negative rate, and false positive rate of Papanicolaou smear were 7.9%, 27.2% respectively. The false negative rate, and false positive rate of cervicography were 11.1%,45.5% respectively. Conclusions . Papanicolaou smear is a useful method and an important tool for detecting cervical cancer. However when Papanicolaou smear and Cervicograpy is used together, the sensitivity is higher than for Papanicolaou smear used alone.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1463-1470
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• 2012

Objective: The aims of this study were to explore Turkish women's knowledge, behavior and beliefs related to cervical cancer and screening. Methods: The study was performed in two cities in the East of Turkey between September 2009 and April 2010, with a sampling group of 387 women. Data were collected by means of an interview form with the Health Belief Model Scale for Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test - Turkish Version. Results: Women in the research group were found to have poor knowledge, inadequate health behavior and low/medium level false beliefs regarding cervical cancer screening. There was relation between health beliefs and characteristics of women and particularly education (F = 10.80, p = 0.01). Similarly, it was found that Pap smear barriers were influenced by demographic characteristics and that women with low-level education (p = 0.001), divorced women (p = 0.05), women with low-income(p = 0.05), women who gave their first birth when they were 18 or younger (p = 0.05) and women not applying any contraceptive method at all (p = 0.01) were determined to have negative Pap smear barriers. Conclusions: Primarily the knowledge, attitudes and beliefs of women in the target group should be evaluated to increase their participation in cervical cancer screening and to prepare effective education strategies.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.1193-1196
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• 2012

Breast and cervical cancer are the most common causes of cancer mortality among women worldwide, but they are largely preventable. There are limited data on knowledge and practices on screening methods of breast and cervical cancers among female health care workers in Sri Lanka, in spite of having an organized screening programme islandwide. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 219 female health care workers including public health midwives (68.9%) selected from 6 districts in Sri Lanka using convenient sampling methods. A self-administered questionnaire was used as a pre-test in a capacity building training programme to collect the data. The mean (SD) duration of work experience of the respondents was 12 years and 52.5% were aged over 35 years. Most (76.7%) were married, and afamily history of cancer was reported by 24.2%. Over 98% knew about self breast examination. Even though 84.1% practiced it, only 47.9% practiced it on a monthly basis. Clinical breast examination and mammography were known by 94.1% and 64.3% respectively. Only 19.2% had undergone a clinical braest examination within one year and 3.6% had ever undergone a mamography. Only 76.3% knew that a Pap smear detects precancerous stage of cervical cancer. Among 169 married workers, 73.4% had never had a Pap smear and only 17.2% had got it done within the preceding 5 years. Among the reasons for not doing a pap smear within 5 years, 47.0% belived it as not nescessary, 17.3% due to fear/dislike, 23.2% as not having symptoms, 3% had not known about it and 3% not known about availability of services. The study findings suggest that the knowledge and practices on breast and cervical cancer screening methods among female health care workers need to be improved. Considering the role that health care workers play in communicating health behaviors to the general public, strengthening health education interventions for this group of females is essential.

• Korean Journal of Occupational Health Nursing
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.179-190
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• 2013

Purpose: Regular cancer screening for workers can help prevent cancer or allow early treatment, and is thus beneficial in improving health, reducing costs, and increasing companies' productivity. However, there has been little research on cancer screening rates of workers and related factors. The purpose of this study was to identify cancer screening rates and relevant factors among manufacturing workers. Methods: Using a questionnaire, data were collected from 335 workers aged over 40 years recruited from seven manufacturing companies. The collected information included cancer screenings (stomach, colorectal, breast, and cervical), attitude towards cancer screening, and demographic and job characteristics. Results: 72.5% of workers received stomach cancer screening (SCS), and 43% received colorectal cancer screening (CRCS). Among 86 women, 68.6% received breast cancer screening and cervical cancer screening. The attitude towards cancer screening was $29.5{\pm}3.78$. Workers aged over 51, married, and those working in mobile manufacturing were more likely to have undergone SCS. Workers aged over 51, married, those working in mobile manufacturing, those in workplaces with more than 1,001 employees, and those with more positive attitudes toward cancer screening were more likely to have undergone CRCS. Finally, attitude affected cervical cancer screening. Conclusion: Workers in small-sized workplaces had lower cancer screening rates. Thus, follow-up research should assess the health environment of workplaces and develop educational programs on cancer screening that reflect attitudes towards screening.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.16
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• pp.6909-6912
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• 2015

Cancer is a major public health problem due to the jeavy disease burden, fatality and tendency for increased incidence. Of all cancer types, cervical cancer is reported to be the fourth most common cancer in women, and the seventh overall, with an estimated 528,000 new cases worldwide in 2012. It features a long preclinical phase with slowly progressing precancerous lesions such as CIN 2 and 3 and adenocarcinoma in situ. Therefore, screening programs such as with Pap smear tests may play an important role in cervical cancer prevention. The purpose of this study was to present results of a Pap smear screening survey for cervical cancer targeting women living in an urban area in the province of Mersin, located in the Mediterranean region of Turkey. This community-based descriptive study included women living at Akdeniz county of Mersin province. A total of 1,032 screened women between 30 and 65 ages within the routine screening programme constituted the study population. The mean age of the participants was $43.8{\pm}8.6$ (min. 30, max. 65) years. The percentage of the participants who had previously undergone smears was 40.6%. Epithelial cell changes were found in 26 (2.5%) participants, with ASC-US in 18 (1.7%), ASC-H in 2 (0.2%), LSIL in 5 (0.5%) and HSIL in 1 (0.1%). The most common clinical presentation together with epithelial changes was abnormal vaginal discharge. Taking into account the presence of women who had never undergone Pap test; it should be offered at primary level of health care in the form of a community-based service to achieve reduced morbidity and mortality rates.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.13
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• pp.5237-5242
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• 2015

Background: Socioeconomic factors are associated with screening in terms of reducing the risk of cervical cancer. This study aimed to clearly establish the effect of screening on variation in socio-economic factor-specific survival estimates. Materials and Methods: Survival estimates were calculated using the life table method for 165 women from the routine care control arm and 67 from the visual inspection with acetic acid screening arm diagnosed with cervical cancer during 2000-2006 in rural south India. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were plotted to compare the variation in survival by socioeconomic factors. Results: Whereas there was a significant variation in survival estimates of the different categories of age at diagnosis among the screen-detected cancers with women aged<50 years having an improved survival, no significant variation was noted among women diagnosed with cervical cancer from the control arm. Compared to the variation among the cancer cases detected in the unscreened control group, screening widened the variation in survival estimates by age and type of house, and reduced the variation by education. The direction of the magnitude of the survival estimates was reversed within the different categories of occupation, marital status and household income in the screen-detected cancer cases compared to control group cancer cases. Also, women diagnosed with stage 1 disease had a very good survival. Conclusions: Screening changed the pattern of survival by socio-economic factors. We found improved survival rates in screened women aged <50 years, with no formal education, manual workers and married women.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.15 no.23
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• pp.10053-10056
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• 2015

The human papilloma virus (HPV) is the main aetiological agent for cervical cancer, one of the most frequent cancers observed in women throughout the world. There are effective programs for reducing the incidence of cervical cancer with HPV vaccination. The objective of this study was to discuss the applicability of the HPV vaccination and the role of nurses in prevention of cervical cancer. Use of bivalent and quadrivalent vaccines has been initiated against the types of HPV which are the primary cause of cancer. The quadrivalent HPV vaccination has entered into the routine vaccination schedule in many European countries for use in children and adolescents between 9-15 years of age and for women between 16-26 years of age, whereas it has been proposed that the bivalent vaccination should be given to girls between 9-18 years of age. While cervical cancer is among the cancers that can be prevented, it is essential to continue screening tests while introducing vaccination in a systematic manner for protection. On this subject, among the most important roles of nurses is to implement the screening programs by fulfilling the caregiving, training and consultancy roles for the society and especially, for high risk groups and to increase the awareness of the people.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.7
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• pp.337-343
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• 2018

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematical survey about the recognition by Korean women's age groups on the cervical cancer screening, of which screening age has expanded to include 20 years of age as of January 2016. An online survey was conducted between July 26th to 31st 2017, and 332 answers in total were collected. 332 sets of survey were used to conduct frequency analysis, chi-square test. According to the result, only 116(34.9%) answered that they recognized the current system of cervical cancer screening. Additionally, most of the subjects, namely 298(89.8%), had the intention to take the cancer screening, but the number of subjects who actually received the test was low with 209(63.0%). Therefore, it is necessary to educate and publicize the importance of screening to increase the screening participation.