Background: Non-communicable diseases have emerged as a health problem of global priority in recent times. Screening and early diagnosis is important to plan appropriate interventions.
Objectives: The objectives of the study were as follows: (1) To study the awareness of screening for hypertension (HTN), diabetes, cancer cervix, and cancer breast, (2) to study the status of screening for HTN, diabetes, cancer cervix, and cancer breast, and (3) to study the factors associated with not aware of screening for above non-communicable diseases.
Materials and Methods: A community-based cross-sectional study was conducted in service practice area of a tertiary care, Puducherry. Adults aged more than 30 years were included by simple random sampling technique. The required sample size was 400. Face-to-face interview was done using semi-structured questionnaire. Basic sociodemographic details, awareness, and status of screening were collected. Data were entered in EpiData Version 3.1 and analyzed in IBM SPSS 17.
Results: Of 398 study participants, majority (43.2%) belongs to 3045 age groups. The mean age of the study participants was 49 ± 13 years. The prevalence of self-reported HTN and diabetes in the present study was 24% and 19.8%, respectively. Nearly three-fourth of the study population had awareness of screening for HTN and diabetes. Awareness of cancer cervix screening was very low (35%) when compared to cancer breast (45%). Unmarried and below primary level of education were independently associated with unawareness of screening for non-communicable disease.
Conclusion: Around 15% and 30% of the study population were never screened for HTN and diabetes, respectively, though the awareness was high, whereas more than three-fourth of the female participants were never screened for cancer breast and cancer cervix though the awareness was
Key words: Awareness; Screening; Non-Communicable Disease; Rural
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