Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of morbidity across the world and India. Even though well established methods of prevention and early detection of ca cervix are available, the utilization of these services is very poor, due to poor knowledge, attitude about these interventions. So understanding the knowledge, attitude and practices related to these vital interventions of various sections of the society is the need of the hour. Objective: To assess and compare the knowledge, attitude and practices regarding cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccination between unemployed and employed women . Methodology: Cross sectional study involving a group of randomly selected teachers, who represented the employed group and another group of unemployed women selected random sampling from OPD as representatives of unemployed women. Results: A total of 113 unemployed women and 42 employed women. The proportion of women who were aware of the tests available for cervical cancer was 61.9% and41.6%, who were aware of vaccine was 47.6% and 31.9%) in employed and unemployed group respectively. The proportion of women who said that they recommend cervical cancer screening test (92.9% Vs 73.8%), said they will vaccinate their daughter (76.1% Vs 50%) was higher on unemployed women compared to employed women. The proportion of women who reported previous screening for cervical cancer was 7.1% in employed women and 14.2% in unemployed women. Conclusions: The knowledge on cervical cancer, screening tests and HPV vaccination was poor in rural, unemployed women compared to employed women. But when appropriate knowledge and facilities are provided, the unemployed women are more likely to adopt theses interventions.