KNOWLEDGE an‎d AWARENESS AMONG IRANIAN WOMEN REGARDING THE PAP SMEAR

Background: Screening is a necessity for country health systems. In undeveloped countries that have no screening programs, cervical carcinoma is one of the major causes of mortality and morbidity. Although cervical cancer is preventable it is poorly controlled in some countries. The main cause of it is unawareness of people from cervical cancer and screening methods. Methods: The target population consisted of a consecutive sample of 1002 female patients, 15-45 years old, visiting the city health care centers in Tehran for any reason between January 2006 and January 2007. We used a self-administered, written, anonymous, multiple choice questionnaire that was developed by the study authors. Statistical significance was defined as P<0.05. Results: The mean of age was 31.23±4.3 years. Five-hundred and twentytwo cases (52.1%) had knowledge about Pap smear test. Only 230 cases (44.1%) knew the correct time of the first Pap smear that should be done in women. and 408 cases (77.9%) knew Pap smear can detect cancer of the cervix. 364 cases (71.9%) had heard about cervical cancer, 314 cases (59.9%) had heard something about symptoms of cervical cancer. Conclusion: It is obvious that in Iran (and especially in Tehran), Pap smear awareness (52.1%) is statistically similar to other developing countries, and only 45.9% had had at least one Pap smear test till the time of the interview. Thus, there is a need for an awareness campaign to increase the uptake of Pap smear testing.