%0 Journal Article
%T Willingness and acceptability of cervical cancer screening among HIV positive Nigerian women
%A Oliver C Ezechi
%A Chidinma V Gab-Okafor
%A Per Olof Ostergren
%A Karen Odberg Pettersson
%J BMC Public Health
%D 2013
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2458-13-46
%X A cross sectional study of HIV positive women attending a large HIV treatment centre in Lagos, Nigeria. Respondents were identified using stratified sampling method. A pretested questionnaire was used to obtain information by trained research assistants. Obtained information were coded and managed using SPSS for windows version 19. Multivariate logistic regression model was used to determine independent predictor for acceptance of cervical cancer screening.Of the 1517 respondents that returned completed questionnaires, 853 (56.2%) were aware of cervical cancer. Though previous cervical cancer screening was low at 9.4%, 79.8% (1210) accepted to take the test. Cost of the test (35.2%) and religious denial (14.0%) were the most common reasons given for refusal to take the test. After controlling for confounding variables in a multivariate logistic regression model, having a tertiary education (OR£¿=£¿1.4; 95% CI: 1.03-1.84), no living child (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1-2.0), recent HIV diagnosis (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.1-2.0) and being aware of cervical cancer (OR: 1.5; 95% CI: 1.2-2.0) retained independent association with acceptance to screen for cervical cancer.The study shows that HIV positive women in our environment are willing to screen for cervical cancer and that the integration of reproductive health service into existing HIV programmes will strengthen rather than disrupt the services.Each year about half a million women develop invasive cancer of the uterine cervix, with more than 80% occurring in low income countries [1,2]. A majority of the cases presents in late stages when available treatments are ineffective [1,3]. The scenario is entirely different in high-income countries where cervical cancer has almost been eliminated as a result of efficient cervical cancer prevention programmes [1,4].In sub Saharan African countries where cervical cancer is endemic; HIV infection has become one of the leading causes of death in women [5], making the interactions between the di
%K Cervical cancer
%K Screening
%K HIV
%K Acceptability
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2458/13/46