Intervenção social por adolescentes na adesão de mulheres ao exame colpocitológico

Abstract

Cervical cancer is an important public health problem. Although that type of neoplasm presents great potential for prevention and healing, when it is diagnosed earlier, it has been identified as one of the most significant concerns in the world. The elaboration and implementation of public policies in the primary health care to ensure the control of this neoplasm as to the accession to the Pap test are of paramount importance. In this research we have chosen a social intervention involving teenagers from a public school in the State of Ceará. The study aimed to analyze the effects of social intervention, involving adolescents in search of women to the Pap smear test. This is a randomized experimental study. The place of the study was the school Deputado Manoel Rodrigues Monteiro located in Vicente Pinzon among the outskirts in Fortaleza. Another location that took part in this study was the Primary Health Care Unit (UAPS) Aida Santos e Silva, next to the school where the survey was developed. The study population was composed of female teenagers who were about 13 to 19 years old that had been studying in that school. The data were collected in the period from September to November of 2015. The data collection was carried out in three stages to the control group (KAP survey, sensitization of women in the community and the searching for the exam by women) and 5 stages for the intervention group (KAP survey, educational intervention, KAP survey, sensitization of women in the community and the searching for the exam by women). The data were compiled and analyzed through the statistical program Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0. For all the analyses, a p value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. During the research were conducted 200 KAP surveys (100 for the control group and 100 more for the intervention group). As far as the teenager’s knowledge and attitude on the cervical screening test, 99.5% and 82.0%, respectively, had high numbers of inadequacy inside the two groups. When the intervention group was evaluated after the educational activity, there was significant increase in knowledge and attitude of this group by going from 0% to 96% and 15% to 99% respectively. When it refers to the outcome of the study, 70 women who were sensitized by teenagers attended to a health unit (31 from the control group and 39 from the intervention group). Although it has not had any statistically significant difference (p = 0.236) between the two groups related to the number of women who sought the examination, we can realize the importance of involving teenage girls in the process of health promotion, since women who have been sensitized by the adolescents from the intervention group were significantly superior related to their knowledge about the purpose of the examination (p<0.003) and care (p<0.000) than the women from control group. The result showed that the intervention used in this study was effective and revealed that the teenagers have been proactive in developing youth engagement in the social environment to sensitize women to their acceptance to the Pap test, showing that they are capable to get involved with health promotion strategies.