Knowledge, attitudes and barriers toward breast and cervical cancer screening of French and Aboriginal women in Timmins, Ontario / by Michelle Haavaldsrud.

Abstract

"The primary objectives of the study were to explore Aboriginal women's current cervical health practices and cervical cancer screening (CCS) utilization, to identify Aboriginal women's knowledge and risk associated with cervical cancer, and to describe Aboriginal women's level of satisfaction with primary health care nurse practitioner (NP) services delivered through an Aboriginal health access centre (AHAC). The research showed that this cohort of women currently meets the Ontario program objective to increase those women ever having been screened to 95% by 2010. More than 60% of the participants in phase 1 had three cervical cancer risk factors, with 68% of first pregnancies reported as occurring by age 20, and 62% self-identified as current smokers, of whom 93% reported regular smoking by age 19. NP services, available since 1999 through AHAC, provide on-reserve Well Women Clinics that have contributed to a marked decrease in status on-reserve Aboriginal women's reports of last Pap test greater than 2 years ago. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)"--Proquest Theses.