DEVELOPMENT OF CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING PROMOTION PROGRAM BY SELF-TESTING FOR THE HPV VIRUS AMONG AT RISK WOMEN, SAMUT SONGKHRAM PROVINCE.

Abstract

     This action research aimed to develop and study the effectiveness of cervical cancer screening promotion program by self-testing for the HPV virus among at risk women, result of cervical cancer screening, comparison of satisfaction with the developed program and the conventional screening program. The sample group consisted of 1) doctors (3 persons), professional nurses (6 persons) and related officials (5 persons) were programmer. 2) women at risk for cervical cancer (120 persons). They were divided into 2 groups; experimental group (the developed program group) and comparative group (the conventional program group), each group consisted of 60 samples. Data collection was used questionnaires and the screening results record form. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics, Chi-square test / Fisher’s exact test, independent t-test and paired t-test.

     The results of the study found that the developed program consisted of: 1) Public relations and appointments by self-examination for HPV virus, 2) Training village health volunteers and community leaders in target areas, 3) Inviting target women to participate in the cervical cancer self-screening process, 4) Providing knowledge about cervical cancer and demonstrations of self-examination for cervical cancer, 5) Self-collection of specimens, 6) reporting the examination results. The effectiveness of the developed program was found that perceived risk of cervical cancer, perceived severity of cervical cancer, perceived benefits of prevention and treatment of cervical cancer and attitudes towards cervical cancer screening were significantly increased and higher than conventional screening program (p-value < 0.001). The screening results found that the group using the developed program had a positive result of 6.7%, and the group using the conventional screening program had a positive result of 1.7%. In addition, the sample women were significantly more satisfied with the developed program than with the conventional screening (p-value < 0.001).