Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica

In Costa Rica, cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer, despite accessibility of screening through the universal health care system. There is little understanding of knowledge levels of the adolescent population on cervical cancer, although this population is the most exposed to risk...

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Autor principal:	Carlson, Lauren M.
Formato:	Online
Idioma:	spa
Publicado:	Universidad de Costa Rica 2014
Acceso en línea:	https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/14063

id	RBT14063
record_format	ojs
spelling	RBT140632022-06-09T17:28:45Z Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica Carlson, Lauren M. adolescents cervical cancer Costa Rica Papanicolaou sex education In Costa Rica, cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer, despite accessibility of screening through the universal health care system. There is little understanding of knowledge levels of the adolescent population on cervical cancer, although this population is the most exposed to risk factors. This study sought to learn about male and female adolescent knowledge of preventative methods, infection acquisition, clinical manifestations and medical services. A total of 533 students from grades 7-12 from five public high schools in the rural San Carlos region participated in the study from March through April 2012. Students were found to lack knowledge, as only 30.8% of students stated that they knew what cervical cancer is. Additionally, a connection was lacking between cervical cancer concepts, as for example 75.2% of students had heard of Human Papiloma Virus, but only 33.9% of those students knew that HPV is related to cervical cancer. Age had a positive relationship with knowledge of main concepts (p≤0.001). More women than men had heard of cervical cancer and the Papanicolaou (p=0.025, p≤0.0001), but otherwise no significant difference in mean response between genders was found. Students were found to have a limited awareness of the educational cervical cancer campaign (7.7% of the student population) and the ability to go alone to the doctor to receive medical attention (30.6% of students). Additionally, the public education system does not require cervical cancer to be included in the present curriculum. Hence, as students lack education on prevention and risk factors, the majority of prevention responsibility falls only on the universal health care system to regularly perform Papanicolaou exams to detect pre-cancerous or cancerous changes. The findings indicated the importance of including cervical cancer in the sexual education curriculum of the public education system in Costa Rica to educate the at-risk population of preventative methods, infection development, clinical manifestations and medical services in order to lower the presence of cervical cancer. Lauren M. Carlson1 & Sam Gonzalez2 1St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, USA; carlsonl@stolaf.edu2Macalester College, St. Paul MN, USA; scarlos1790@gmail.com Universidad de Costa Rica 2014-09-01 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion application/pdf text/html https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/14063 10.15517/rbt.v62i3.14063 Revista de Biología Tropical; Vol. 62 No. 3 (2014): Volume 62 – Regular number 3 – September 2014; 877–886 Revista de Biología Tropical; Vol. 62 Núm. 3 (2014): Volumen 62 – Número regular 3 – Setiembre 2014; 877–886 Revista Biología Tropical; Vol. 62 N.º 3 (2014): Volume 62 – Regular number 3 – September 2014; 877–886 2215-2075 0034-7744 10.15517/rbt.v62i3 spa https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/14063/14707 https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/14063/14708 Copyright (c) 2014 Revista de Biología Tropical http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
institution	Universidad de Costa Rica
collection	Revista de Biología Tropical
language	spa
format	Online
author	Carlson, Lauren M.
spellingShingle	Carlson, Lauren M. Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
author_facet	Carlson, Lauren M.
author_sort	Carlson, Lauren M.
description	In Costa Rica, cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer, despite accessibility of screening through the universal health care system. There is little understanding of knowledge levels of the adolescent population on cervical cancer, although this population is the most exposed to risk factors. This study sought to learn about male and female adolescent knowledge of preventative methods, infection acquisition, clinical manifestations and medical services. A total of 533 students from grades 7-12 from five public high schools in the rural San Carlos region participated in the study from March through April 2012. Students were found to lack knowledge, as only 30.8% of students stated that they knew what cervical cancer is. Additionally, a connection was lacking between cervical cancer concepts, as for example 75.2% of students had heard of Human Papiloma Virus, but only 33.9% of those students knew that HPV is related to cervical cancer. Age had a positive relationship with knowledge of main concepts (p≤0.001). More women than men had heard of cervical cancer and the Papanicolaou (p=0.025, p≤0.0001), but otherwise no significant difference in mean response between genders was found. Students were found to have a limited awareness of the educational cervical cancer campaign (7.7% of the student population) and the ability to go alone to the doctor to receive medical attention (30.6% of students). Additionally, the public education system does not require cervical cancer to be included in the present curriculum. Hence, as students lack education on prevention and risk factors, the majority of prevention responsibility falls only on the universal health care system to regularly perform Papanicolaou exams to detect pre-cancerous or cancerous changes. The findings indicated the importance of including cervical cancer in the sexual education curriculum of the public education system in Costa Rica to educate the at-risk population of preventative methods, infection development, clinical manifestations and medical services in order to lower the presence of cervical cancer. Lauren M. Carlson1 & Sam Gonzalez2 1St. Olaf College, Northfield, MN, USA; carlsonl@stolaf.edu2Macalester College, St. Paul MN, USA; scarlos1790@gmail.com
title	Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
title_short	Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
title_full	Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
title_fullStr	Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
title_full_unstemmed	Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica
title_sort	knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in san carlos, costa rica
publisher	Universidad de Costa Rica
publishDate	2014
url	https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/rbt/article/view/14063
work_keys_str_mv	AT carlsonlaurenm knowledgeofcervicalcancerpathologyofhighschoolstudentsinsancarloscostarica
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Knowledge of cervical cancer pathology of high school students in San Carlos, Costa Rica

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