title: Knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening among market women in Zaria, Nigeria.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervical cancer is the most common genital cancer and one of the leading causes of death among female population. Fortunately, this cancer is preventable by screening for premalignant lesions but this is rarely provided and hardly utilised. We assessed the knowledge, attitude and utilisation of cervical cancer screening among market women in Sabon Gari, Zaria.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional study to evaluate the knowledge, attitude and practice of cervical cancer screening among market women. A total of 260 women were administered with questionnaires which were both self and interviewer administered. These were analysed using SPSS version 11.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Respondents exhibited a fair knowledge of cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening (43.5%); however, their knowledge of risk factors was poor. There was generally good attitude to cervical cancer screening (80.4%), but their level of practice was low (15.4%).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  There was a fair knowledge of cervical cancer and cervical cancer screening among Nigerian market women in this study, their practice of cervical cancer screening was poor.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Saad Aliyu
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Ahmed
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Kabiru
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sabitu
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Suleiman Hadejia
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Idris
authors.affiliation: Department of Education, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
authors.forename: Rukaiya
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ahmed
keywords: Cervical; Zaria; cancer; screening