By Talkafrica team
Screening rates were influenced by age, income, religion, and exposure to media.
Only one in six Kenyan women are screened for cervical cancer, according to a new study by a group of Ethiopian university researchers.
Based on 2022 data from the Kenyan Demographic and Health Survey, the study looked at nearly 17,000 women of reproductive age. The study was published in the BMC Public Health medical journal last year by a team of researchers from Debre Berhan University.
Kenya’s screening rate of nearly 17 percent is lower than Cameroon’s, where the rate of screening was 56 percent, Malaysia (49 percent), and Rwanda (28 percent). In developed countries, the rate of cervical cancer screening is nearly four times higher at 63 percent.
The low rate of cervical cancer screening in Kenya is important because it was the leading cause of cancer deaths in women globally in 2020, according to the study. More than 340,000 women died of cervical cancer around the world that year.
What’s more important about Kenya’s low screening rate is that cervical cancer is preventable in the first place.
Cervical cancer is primarily caused by Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) which can be prevented from transmission by vaccinations. The World Health Organization advocates that girls between the ages of nine to 14 be vaccinated against HPV.
The study also found that cervical cancer screening rates in Kenya were much higher for older women compared to younger ones.
For example, women aged 40 to 49 were seven times more likely to have been screened for cervical cancer than women aged 15 to 24.
Women of the Islamic faith had a 43 percent lower probability of being screened for cervical cancer compared to Catholic women.
Women without children had a 60 percent less chance of being screened for cervical cancer than women with one to four children.
The study also found that women who had had an abortion had a higher rate of cervical cancer screening.
Women from the highest income level were nearly 60 percent more likely to be screened than those in the lowest income level.
The study found that greater exposure to media led to higher rates of screening. Women exposed to media were more likely to receive information about the health and financial advantages of cervical cancer screening.
Exposure to media, according to the study, leads to a better understanding of cultural taboos and factual information.
The study’s authors suggest that increasing cervical cancer screening uptake in Kenya requires public health interventions targeting uneducated women, lower-income women, those who do not use modern contraceptive methods, those who do not receive media exposure, and those who haven’t visited a health facility in the past year.
“To achieve this, targeted awareness campaigns can be initiated in low-income areas, emphasizing the importance of cervical cancer screening,” the study’s authors said.
This article was developed during training on medical reporting for Talkafrica journalists conducted by a veteran investigative journalist, Steve Buist from Canada.
