Knowledge, attitude and behaviour of the University of Ibadan women towards cancer of the cervix and its prevention Chioma Christie Asuzu 1,2 *, Julian Unegbu 1 and Elizabeth Akin‐odanye 1 1 University of Ibadan, Department of Guidance and Counselling Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria 2 University of Ibadan, LMPC, Department of Radiotherapy Ibadan, Oyo, Nigeria *Correspondence to: University of Ibadan, Department of Guidance and Counselling Ibadan, Oyo‐State, Nigeria. E‐ mail: chiomasuzu20@ yahoo.com Received: 23 April 2011 Revised: 9 May 2011 Accepted: 11 May 2011 Abstract Objectives: The two commonest cancers in Nigerian women are cancers of the breast and the cervix. Cancer of the cervix is the second commonest cancer and is a killer disease worldwide. The main objective of this study is to find out the knowledge, attitude and practices of the female university staff towards cancer of the cervix as a leadership group in the local effort towards cancer prevention. Methodology: A sample of 302 female staff of the University of Ibadan, which comprised 151 academic and 151 non‐academic staff was studied. These were all the female members of staff who were met during the study visitation of all the departments on the main campus of the university and who were willing to participate in the study. A self‐constructed and validated instrument called the knowledge, attitude and practice towards cervical cancer scale was used in collecting data for the study. Results: Two hundred and forty‐two (79.1%) were aware of the disease, whereas 19.9% (60) were not aware. The academic staff were statistically significantly more knowledgeable of cervical cancer than the non‐academic staff (p = 0.05). Two hundred and thirty‐two (232 or 76.82%) have a positive attitude towards preventive measures for cancer of the cervix such as Pap smear or ascetic acid test. However, as much as 210 (73.5%) of the women had never undertaken a Pap smear or other screening test for the condition. Conclusion: There is need for more education and promotion of cancer screening and services in this locality. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Keywords: cancer; oncology; knowledge; attitude; behaviour Introduction It is widely reported that cervical cancer is the second most common form of cancer in women and in most developing countries. Cancer, a disease that affects health negatively, manifests with demoralising symp- toms and often becomes a thing of concern to many, only when it has reached advanced stage and has started having psychological impacts that impinge on the stability of affected individuals and their family members. Although largely preventable, cervical cancer remains a leading cause of cancer death in the developing world [3]. The disease poses more threat to the entire women race than some other deadly diseases because of the little cognizance people take of its existence. The threat it poses to the human population is because of its capability to affect women of all ages. Notably, the risk for it tends to increase with age. The burden of cervical cancer on its victims and families has been noticed to be overwhelming; this is because a lot of people seem to be poorly aware and indifferent to this disease exacerbated by the silent na- ture of cervical cancer at the early stage. Socially, the affected individual might become withdrawn, stressed and may portray antisocial behaviours because of the inner feeling of being stigmatised or discriminated against. This feeling most times arises from the un- wanted help and pity from people around. Economi- cally, the consequences are from the likely financial strains and poverty that the individual is plunged into as a result of hospital bills incurred from late medical attention to the ailment. Psychologically, the individual experiences pain, anxiety, grief and fear of death. Apart from the pool of trauma that it plunges into this individual, it pushes further a good quota of the infected persons into premature death. As earlier enacted, the disease is preventable only if attended to in time. Nevertheless, this has not been too possible as the knowledge and attitude of many women towards its occurrence is low. For instance, Ogunbode and Ayinde [11] found out in a study Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Psycho-Oncology Psycho-Oncology 21: 1010–1015 (2012) Published online 14 July 2011 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI: 10.1002/pon.2007