Awareness and health beliefs regarding cervical cancer and screenings of women living two different ethnic groups

Purpose: It is stated that the high mortality rate of cer-vical cancer worldwide can be reduced by early diag-nosis, effective observation, and treatment pro-grams. It was aimed to evaluate the correlation be-tween cervical cancer and screening and the health be-liefs of married women living in two different ethnic groups. Materials and methods: This research was con-ducted as a comparative descriptive study. 211 Roma (Gypsies) and 202 non-Roma married women included in the study. The data was obtained in the research by the introductory survey form and the "Cervical Cancer and Pap Smear Test Health Belief Model Scale". Per-centage, mean, t-test, chi-square tests were used in the evaluation of the data. A logistic regression analysis was used. Before the start of the research was received approval by the Ethics Committee. Results: The average age of the non-Roma women who participated in the survey was found 40.3 ± 10.5 (min: 20, max: 67). Non-Roma women were found to have received a pap-smear test at a higher rate (about 4 times more) than Roma women (p˂0.001, OR=3.723, 95%, CI 2.472, 5.607). Non-Roma women were found to have a higher pap-smear test rate (3-fold higher) than Roma women and found that the differ-ence between them was statistically significant (p˂0.001, OR=2.932, 95%, CI 1.855, 4.635). Conclusions: Roma women, a disadvantaged group, were found to hear fewer pap-smear tests, have less knowledge about the test, take fewer pap smears than non-Roma women and especially they did not have the pap-smear test because they did not know it.