Abstract

PREVALENCE OF CERVICAL CANCER AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG WOMEN IN BAGHDAD / IRAQ

Muna R. Hassan*, Abeer A. Gatea and Hanan R. Hassan

Abstract

Background: Cervical cancer is a ten most common female cancer in women aged 15-44 years in Iraq with the crude incidence rate 1.7% per 100.000 women per year. Aims: To assess the prevalence of cervical cancer and associated factors of women in Baghdad. Methodology: A retrospective study conducted in the Statistics department in Ministry of Health to get the information on patients with cervical cancer for a period from 1st January to the end of December 2013. The sample size was 65 distributed over different areas of Baghdad and concentrated mostly on the districts of the province. Information includes age, occupation, education, risk factor, and family history, stage of disease, surgery, and type of treatment. All data entered into Stata Version 20 to analyze and get some relation between variables. Results: The highest percentage of cervical cases 47/65(72.3%) were in the age more than 50 years, 39/65(60%) were housewives, 24/65(36.9%) were primary education status, 36/65(55.4%) had a family history of cervical cancer and 26/65(40%) had moderated economic status. Also, 17/65(26.2%) had history of smoking practice and 17/30(56.7%) had a total hysterectomy surgery and chemotherapy treatment. Conclusion: we conclude that the majority of cervical cancer occur to women in age above 50 years. Usage of oral contraceptive and Chlamydia infection is the most risk factor for cervical cancer. There is no statistically significant relationship between the surgery and type of treatment. Recommendation: we need to have health awareness among women about cervical cancer via TV, announcement, Facebook, and civil society organizations to encourage them to do the checkup every 6 months if you have a family history of the disease or any one of the risk factors.

Keywords: Cervical, Iraq, Risk, Chlamydia, smoking, women, age.