Abstract:
Introduction: Cervical cancer is one of the significant public health problems in the world,
especially in Less developed countries. In Ghana, cervical cancer is the leading cause of
gynecological cancers. This study was aimed at assessing the level of awareness of this dreadful
disease among adolescent female Senior High School students in the Lower Manya Krobo
Municipality in the Eastern Region of Ghana.
Methods: A cross-sectional study of female adolescents was conducted using self-administered
questionnaires to elicit information on demographic characteristics, knowledge, awareness, and
perception of cervical cancer. The association of demographic characteristics and other important
study variables were investigated. Frequencies and percentages were calculated for questions
asked. Logistic regression was used to make predictions.
Findings: The mean age of participants was 16.6 years (± 1.6). Majority (63.0%) had heard about
the disease. About one-third (30.2%) reported getting their information from Television/Radio with a
relatively lower proportion (0.4%) getting their information from the internet. Some risk factors identified by participants were unprotected sex (45.5%), sex at an early age (4.9%), excessive
contraceptive use (4.1%). Cervical cancer knowledge was significantly associated with the school of
enrollment (P-value 0.013), grade/form (P-value 0.002), and residential status of students (P-value
0.013). A respondent in a single-sex school was 2.98 times more likely to have knowledge of
cervical cancer compared to the reference group, adjusting for all other variables. Only 29.3% and
17.7% knew about cervical cancer screening and HPV vaccines respectively.
Conclusions: There exist gaps in the knowledge of cervical cancer among adolescents in this
study. There is the need for the creation of more awareness, with a special focus on the associated
risk factors of the disease to ensure quality of life for the adolescents in their life course.
