test), positive misconceptions (e.g., cervical screening test
cures cervical cancer and womb infection), and fatalistic
misconceptions (e.g., cervical screening is a waste of money).
A summary of the subscale items is reported in Table 5.
Knowledge scale. The scale had five items as follows:
What is a cervical screening test? Why is the cervical screening
test done? Who performs the cervical screening tests? What
institution offers cervical screening tests? On what part of the
body is the cervical screening test done? The Cronbach’s reliability
coefficient alpha for this scale was 0.74. Perceptions
about healthcare services scale consisted of seven items with a
Cronbach’s reliability coefficient alpha of 0.75. Two questions
assessed cervical screening status of females. Ever accessed
cervical screening tests and Ever heard of cervical screening
tests were measured by a Yes and No response format (Table
2). Bivariate analyses were used to analyze the relationship
between the dependent variables, Ever accessed cervical
screening tests and Ever heard of cervical screening tests, and
the independent variables, age, village, educational level, religion,
marital status, financial dependence, and financial income.
Chi-square was used for categorical variables, and
Student’s t test was used for continuous variables. Statistical
significance for all tests was assessed at the 0.05 level.
Results
The most important results emerging from this study were
in response to our study aims: (1) to estimate what proportion
of rural females had received cervical screening, (2) to assess
knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and demographic factors that
influence cervical screening, and (3) to predict cervical
screening accessibility based on demographic factors,
knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes that influence cervical
screening.
Of the 514 participants, 91% had never had cervical
screening, and 81% had no previous knowledge of the cervical
screening tests. Despite never having had cervical screening
and lacking prior knowledge of its purpose, 80% of the females
expressed positive beliefs about cervical screening tests
after an educational intervention. Females who were financially
independent were 6.61% more likely to access cervical
screening tests compared with those who were dependent on
their husbands. Females from the mining villages were 4.47%
more likely to access cervical screening tests compared with
those in traditional rural reserve villages. Those females who
lived in resettlement villages were 20% less likely to access
cervical screening than those who lived in traditional rural
reserve villages.