A survey of awareness of Pap smear and cervical cancer vaccine among women at tertiary care centre in Eastern Uttar Pradesh India

Background: Cervical cancer is very common in developing countries. In Uttar Pradesh the literacy rate of women is low as compared to other states of India. Poverty is very high. Most women report with advance stage of cervical cancer. It can be prevented by early screening with Pap smear. Aim of our study is to know about the awareness of Pap smear and cervical cancer vaccine among women attending a tertiary hospital in Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh India.Methods: A questionnaire based study is done on 1500 patients attending the OPD and admitted in ward over a period of one year.Results: To our surprise only 12.06% women were aware of Pap screening test. Only 6.13% women were aware of cervical cancer vaccine. The awareness about both Pap test and cervical cancer vaccine was present in only 5.2% only. The education of the women and socioeconomic status also play an important role. The awareness among rural women was significantly less as compared to urban women.Conclusions: The awareness about Pap test and cervical cancer vaccine was very low specially in women staying in rural area. So if we really wanted to reduce cervical cancer then we have to increase the awareness among women by media, camps etc