Level of Awareness Regarding Cervical Cancer Among Female Syrian Refugees in Greece
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Level of Awareness Regarding Cervical Cancer Among Female Syrian Refugees in Greece Vasiliki Dalla 1 & Eirini-Kanella Panagiotopoulou 2 & Anna Deltsidou 1,3 & Maria Kalogeropoulou 1 & Petros Kostagiolas 1,4 & Dimitris Niakas 1,5 & Georgios Labiris 1,2 Accepted: 9 September 2020 # American Association for Cancer Education 2020
Abstract Nowadays, prevention, control and treatment of cervical cancer are a worldwide public health priority. Primary objective of this study was to evaluate the level of awareness of female Syrian refugees who have recently settled in Greece regarding the warning signs and the risk factors of cervical cancer. This is a descriptive, cross-sectional study that was conducted in two facilities of the Hellenic Red Cross. The Cervical Cancer Awareness Measure questionnaire was addressed to 176 female Syrian refugees, aged between 18 and 50. Syrian women presented low awareness both for risk factors and warning signs. The most frequently identified warning signs were vaginal bleeding after menopause (44.3%), vaginal bleeding between menstruation (34.1%) and unexplained weight loss (32.4%). Regarding the risk factors’ recognition rates, 74.5% considered the existence of many sexual partners as a risk factor and 61.3% the existence of a sexual partner with many previous sexual partners. Older age, a higher level of education and confidence that any potential symptom would be identified were associated with increased awareness. Our findings confirm former published reports that indicate poor awareness regarding cervical cancer among refugee populations. Full compliance with the guidelines of the World Health Organization for a national cervical cancer screening programme is highly advised in Greece and should address the needs of both native and refugee populations. This research is the first one that underlines the need for raising awareness of cervical cancer among female Syrian refugees in Greece by developing health promotion strategies adjusted to their unique cultural needs. Keywords Cervical cancer . Women . Refugee . Pap Test . Syria
Introduction According to the World Health Organization (WHO), cervical cancer is the fourth most common malignancy in women worldwide, with around 570,000 new cases in 2018 [1].
* Vasiliki Dalla [email protected] 1
Faculty of Social Sciences, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece
2
Medical School, Democritus University of Thrace, Alexandroupolis, Greece
3
Department of Midwifery, University of West Attica, Athens, Greece
4
Department of Archives, Library Science and Museology, School of Information Science and Informatics, Ionian University, Corfu, Greece
5
Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece
Women of all ethnicities are at risk of developing this type of cancer, with the highest number of deaths, approximately 90% of the total number, being recorded in developing countries [1, 2]. In the majority of cases, in contrast to other types of malignancies, cervical cancer can be prevented [3]. The Pap Test i
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