Free cervical cancer screening services are provided in Malawi’s public healthcare
institutionssince 1999. Few women aged 42 and older, utilise these services. Cervical cancer
continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality among this group of women.
Structured interviews were conducted with 381 women who attended three healthcare
centers in Blantyre and semi-structured interviews with 14 nurse/midwives working at the
same centers.
The results for both phases arepresented within the Health Belief Model’s constructs. Phase
1 revealed that women had low levels of perceived susceptibility to cervical cancer. Although
the interviewed women perceived cervical cancer to be a serious condition, they did not
regard themselves to be at risk of suffering from cervical cancer. Knowledge that cervical
cancer screening could detect this cancer at an early stage, embarrassment, stigma, social
support, financial costs, traditional practices and available sources of information, influenced
women’s intentions to be screened for cervical cancer.
In phase 2, the nurse/midwives indicated that Malawian women lacked information about
cervical cancer, available screening tests and the purpose of such screening.These women
perceived cervical canceras being incurable and linked to witchcraft. Women’s utilisation of
cervical screening services was hampered by barriers relating to healthcare institutions,
women themselves and nurse/midwives. Local radio and television broadcasts, friends and
nurse/midwives motivated individual women to use these screening services.Women
preferred receiving information about cervical cancer screening during community activities.
Health education should be intensified, nurse/midwives should be more empathetic, clinic
days and hours should be extended. Misconceptions should be addressed and more service
providers should be trained. This would enable more Malawian women to use cervical
screening services, enhancing early detection and treatment of cervical cancer and reducing
the morbidity and mortality statistics related to this condition in Malawi. / Health Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Health Studies)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:unisa/oai:uir.unisa.ac.za:10500/9026 |
| Date | 19 April 2013 |
| Creators | Hami, Melanie Yandakale |
| Contributors | Ehlers, V. J., Van der Wal, D. M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | University of South Africa |
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