Awareness and attitude towards cervical cancer sign symptoms, risk factors and its prevention among female medical and non-medical students’ in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Aim: The aim of this study was to assess awareness and attitude towards cervical cancer sign symptoms, risk factors and its prevention among female medical and non-medical students’ in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Subjects and Method: This cross sectional study conducted at King AbdulAziz University (KAU), Jeddah. The SPSS 21 was used to analyze data. Results: Majority of students (87.8%) have heard about cervical cancer and most of the participants knew that it is a preventable disease (70.4%). More than half of students (57.4%) heard of Pap smear test, while only (9.5%) participants have got done the Pap smear test. Question about the awareness regarding vaccine against cervical cancer only 30.5% of participants were aware that vaccine is available against cervical cancer and 37.8% of students have heard about HPV infection. Many participants (52.1%) were in the view that vaginal bleeding after menopause is the symptom of cervical cancer followed by vaginal bleeding between periods (35.5%) and fever and weight loss (33.5%) and others. When we compared the knowledge of medical students with non-medical students, there was significant difference in several aspects of knowledge regarding cervical cancer, HPV, vaccine, and Pap smear test. The barriers against seeking cervical examination were variable, as (25.6%) of students believed that shyness is a barrier for them, other barriers were, too busy, fear form the expected results and others. About the source of information, 28% stated that the curriculum was the major source followed by the other sources like, awareness campaigns, family members and others. Conclusion: Results of present study propose that the knowledge of the majority of the female students is not adequate about the sign symptoms, risk factors, and preventive measures.