Chinese women's motivation to receive future screening: the role of social-demographic factors, knowledge and risk perception of cervical cancer.
OBJECTIVE
This paper adopted Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) to examine Chinese women's knowledge and perceptions of cervical cancer risk and factors influencing their motivation to receive future screening.


METHODS
A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 167 Chinese women (142 women were willing to receive a screening in the future and 25 women were not) in 2007 to collect women's socio-demographic information and sexual history, perceptions related to body health and knowledge about cervical cancer and screening, and Protection Motivation Theory measures.


RESULTS
The majority of women stated they intended to receive future screening and response efficacy was significantly associated with their intention. However, no significant association was observed between sexual history and protection motivation. Using multivariate analysis, cancer in relatives (odds ratio, OR = 9.97, 95% CI [1.44-436.3], p = 0.010), a perception that visiting a doctor regularly is important to health (OR = 9.85, 95% CI [1.61-999.9], p = 0.009)), and ever attending for cervical screening during the previous three years (OR = 3.49, 95% CI [1.23-11.02], p = 0.016) were significantly associated with women' motivation to receive future screening.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings of this study highlight the important role of women's beliefs in the value of cervical screening and previous screening experience in motivating them to receive a screening. Education intervention is needed to provide information and raise public awareness about the importance of cervical screening to women's health. Culture-related beliefs and social motivational processes in addition to those specified by PMT need to be addressed.
The Xiang-Ya School of Nursing, Central South University, Changsha, PR China. cangu078@126.com
Can
C
Gu
Carmen W H
CW
Chan
Guo-Ping
GP
He
K C
KC
Choi
Sheng-Bo
SB
Yang
D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People; D002681:China; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003469:Culture; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening; D008875:Middle Aged; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000517:prevention & control; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*