A socio-demographic study of woman undergoing screening for cervical dysplasia at chc, muradnagar, district-ghaziabad, U.P. India

Background: Cancer of cervix is a common cancer that affects Indian women physically, psychologically, socially and financially. The disease affects not just the women but also her family and society. Aims and Objectives: This study was designed to study status of uterine cervical dysplasia amongst women attending gynae OPD at CHC Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, U.P. Materials and Methods: This study was done at the community health center (CHC), Muradnagar. It was a cross-sectional study done by using VIA (visual inspection using acetic acid) technique on uterine cervix on 1250 women aged above 30 years of age attending gynecology OPD of CHC Muradnagar, Ghaziabad U.P. Purposive sampling was used to enroll all the women who were attending the gynecology OPD at CHC and were coming in the eligibility criteria. Results: Out of 1250 women, 14 were found to be VIA positive, out of which 4 cases came out to be positive for dysplasia after doing biopsy under colposcopy. Three biopsy positive cases were found in the age group of 41 to 50 years and one case in age group of 51-60 years, two biopsy positive cases were found amongst participants who had no literacy and two were found positive amongst females who had at least taken intermediate level or higher education, all the four biopsy positive cases were found amongst participants who were Hindu by religion, two biopsy positive cases were found amongst participants who were not working and two were found positive amongst females who were working, two biopsy positive cases were found amongst participants whose husbands were working as a professional and two cases were found positive amongst females whose husbands were working as either skilled/semi-skilled/unskilled labours or unemployed, two biopsy positive cases were found amongst participants who belonged to Class I Socio-economic status and two cases were found positive amongst females who belonged to Class III Socio-economic status. Conclusion: Our epidemiological study revealed that many socio demographic variables such as increasing age, literacy status, religion, working status of participant and her husband, socio-economic status are important factors that significantly showed higher proportion of dysplasia that can influence development of cervical cancer. In addition, these factors are supported by several epidemiological studies as important risk factors for development of cervical cancer, specially done in low resource settings. Recommendation: Mass health education and behaviour change interventions should be conducted at the community level in order to make all women of childbearing age aware about cervical cancer and its screening. The benefits of early diagnosis and treatment must be made aware to women so that they are encouraged to take cervical