Assessment of treatment compliance and associated factors among cervical cancer patients in Tikur Anbessa Specialized Hospital, Oncology unit, Ethiopia 2012

Background: Cervical cancer is a major public health problem through-out the world, and despite important declines in incidence and mortality observed in developed countries in the last 20 years, those indicators remain almost unchanged in developing countries. Cervical cancer ranks as the 2nd most frequent cancer among women in Ethiopia, and also among women between 15-44 years of age. Compliance has been defined as the extent to which a person’s behavior coincides with healthcare advice or when patients do what health professionals recommend. Cancer patient compliance with medical advice and procedures is crucial for successful treatment. Objective: The purpose of the study was to assess compliance to treatment services and associated factors affecting treatment compliance of cervical cancer patients in Tikur Anbesa Specialized Hospital, Oncology unit. Materials & Methods: An institutional based cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among 314 cervical cancer patients who are selected based on inclusion criteria and data will be collected using face to face structured questionnaire based interview. The data was entered in to EPI-INFO version 3.5.1, exported to SPSS for analysis and data presented in graphs and charts. Result: Out of 314 interviewed cervical cancer patients, 219 (69.7%) were compliant but 95 (30.3%) were non-compliant to the treatment services. There is a significant difference between the participants 121 (78.6%) who had missed their appointment time with, OR=2.32 (1.408, 3.882) and p value=0.001 than the respondents 98 (61.2%) of cervical cancer patient of treatment compliance. Conclusion: The findings of the study about the treatment service were partially non-compliant with radiotherapy and chemoradiation services. Patients who missed their appointment were 2.3 times non-compliant than those who adhere to the appointment time. Factors with low income level, missing appointment, medication side effect, prolonged treatment, poor understanding of treatment advantages were significantly affecting treatment compliance based on multiple logistic regressions.

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