Non-Adherence to recommended Pap smear screening guidelines and its associated factors among women attending health clinic in Malaysia

• Published in: Malaysian family physician Vol. 13; no. 1; pp. 10 - 17
• Main Authors: NA, Yunus, H, Mohamed Yusoff, N, Draman
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kuala Lumpur Academy of Family Physicians of Malaysia 2018; Academy of Family Physician of Malaysia
• Subjects: Behavior; Cervical cancer; Clinics; Data collection; Disease prevention; Education; Health care; Health promotion; Hysterectomy; Maternal & child health; Medical screening; Original; Pap smear; Perceptions; Preventive medicine; Public health; Sample size; Womens health; United States > US; Malaysia
• ISSN: 1985-2274; 1985-207X; 1985-2274

[...]the average annual hospital admission for cervical cancer was 2000 to 3000 cases per year, with the majority of them presenting with a FIGO stage II or higher 3. [...]continuous health promotions about Pap smear screening need to be regularly emphasized to all eligible women, regardless of socioeconomic background, to ensure adherence. [...]a study among Thai women also failed to show a relationship between perceived threat (which included perceived susceptibility and severity), perceived benefit, and cues to action with cervical cancer screening adherence.30 However, the former study reported a significant association between 'perceived barrier' and cervical cancer screening adherence, which was not evident in our study.30 On the other hand, Shelton et al. showed inconsistent association between barriers with cervical cancer screening adherence across four sub-groups of immigrants in their study.21 This discrepancy in the results could be due to the barriers of concern in one population being different from those in other populations. [...]as reported by Abdullah et al. in their study, the perceived barrier faced by Malaysian women who did not undergo a Pap smear or did not repeat the test as scheduled was minimal.29 Thus, there must be other factors apart from perceived barriers that hinder the women from undergoing or maintaining cervical cancer screening. [...]HBM theory focuses on individuals as one unit of change, whereas health behaviours are effects of various levels of influence, such as intrapersonal influence, institutional factors, community factors, and public policy.31 For example, 'subjective norms,' which are social standards and motivations to comply with those norms, are studied in the Theory of Planned Behaviour, but not covered in HBM.32 Therefore, addressing issues of nonadherence in Pap smear screening might require more than one theory, since there may be no single theory which is suitable for all cases.