AbstractContext: Last few decades saw rapid decline of cervical cancer worldwide. However, 75% of the new cases are reported to occur in developing countries due lack of awareness among the female population.
Aims: This study was conducted to determine the prevalence of cervical carcinoma in the urban female population and to evaluate the clinical findings, assess the sociodemographic and risk factors associated with unhealthy cervix in the study group. Settings and Design: This was a descriptive study carried out in KPC medical college Kolkata from December 2014 to December 2017 Methods and Material: Pap smear screening was done on 328 patients presenting with unhealthy cervix, out of which biopsy was obtained from 172 patients. Risk factors, clinical findings and knowledge about awareness programs were taken into consideration. The cytological results were correlated with the clinical findings and compared with the biopsy results.
Results: A total of 19.2% patients presented with epithelial cell abnormality in unhealthy cervical smears. Early age at marriage, multiparity , use of contraceptives and age at first sexual intercourse were 76.4%, 32.2%, 28.3% and 69.9%. Awareness about cause, symptoms, pap test was 5.6%, 6.7% and 6.3%. Risk factors and clinical findings like unhealthy cervix with discharge, erosion and congestion showed significant association (p=0.05%) with cancer. Pap smear of unhealthy cervix showed 73.4% sensitivity and 84.3% accuracy with biopsy.
Conclusions: Thus in developing countries implementation of more rigorous screening programs and spread of awareness about unhealthy cervix should help bring down the rate of cervical cancer.
Keywords: Pap Smear; Risk Factors Cervix; Cervical Smears; Papanicolaou Test; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms.