Sociocultural factors associated with cervical cancer in Bendel State, Nigeria.
This is an analysis of data on 50 patients treated for cervical cancer at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital, Benin City, Nigeria, from March 1973 to December 1976. The data were collected through a questionnaire designed to obtained information concerning various sociocultural factors about cervical cancer patients. Study results showed that 80% of the patients had no formal education and came from lower socioeconomic groups. Most of the patients (88%) married before the age of 20, and 76% reported frequent coitus. The patients were high-parity women; but high parity is also typical of the general female population. Since the culture demands that the male population be circumcised, a low incidence of cervical cancer might be expected. The occurrence of 65 cases of cancer of the cervix out of a total of 15 049 hospital gynecologic cases examined during the study period is possible evidence of such a low incidence in this population.
D000367:Age Factors; D003075:Coitus; D003466:Cultural Characteristics; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009549:Nigeria; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy