Abstract:
Purpose Cervical cancer is the commonest malignancy in
females in Northern Nigeria (Oguntayo et al. in Ecancer medicalscience 5:219, 2011. doi:10.3332/ecancer.2011.
219). It is therefore important to identify the demographic
patterns of the population most frequently affected in order
to direct any preventive or interventional activities
appropriately.
Methods Patients were recruited serially as they presented
to the Radiotherapy department of Ahmadu Bello Univer sity Teaching Hospital, Shika, Zaria, to reach the calcu lated sample size. The data were analyzed using Statistical
Package for Social Sciences 20.0 and are presented here in
tables and graphs.
Results A total of 73 patients participated in the study, and
filled questionnaires were used in the collation of data.
Majority of the patients seen were still within the repro ductive age group 40–49 years. The mean age at presen tation was 51 years, and a modal age of 40 years. The
minimum age at presentation was 26 years and maximum
age was 76 years. 37% of respondents were Hausa, 4.1%
Yoruba, 6.8% Ibo and 52% for others comprising Tiv,
Idoma, Urhobo, Igala and other minor tribes. 74% of the
respondents were married, 4.1% divorced and 21.9%
widowed. 28% had only primary education, 26% had no
form of education at all, 16.4% had Qur’anic education and
only 11% had attained tertiary education level. Most of them were unemployed housewives (54.8%). More than
half, 53.4% earned less than 200 naira a day.
Conclusion Most patients are within the age bracket
40–49 years; they are mostly Hausa, married, housewives
with minimal education and within the low socioeconomic
class. This result points to a need to adopt a strategy of
public education, enlightenment and screening programs
that will capture the language barrier that exists as a result
of poor education and the generally prevailing culture of
being housewives which directly influences the health seeking behavior of women in Northern Nigeria
