BARRIERS TO CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING AMONG IRAQI KURDISH WOMEN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Background: Cervical cancer is one of the commonest cancers in women worldwide. Cervical cancer screening is an effective strategy to reduce mortality, the uptake of screening, as a health seeking behavior, is very low among Iraq Kurdish women. Better understanding of the perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening is needed to find context-based explanation in order to find a blueprint to increase the screening rate. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to explore perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening from the viewpoint of Kurdish women from Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Materials and methods: The present study adopted a qualitative design based on a conventional content analysis approach. Purposive sampling was employed to choose 19 women who had either had a Pap smear or refused to have one. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were performed with each individual to collect the data. Results: Five main themes including awareness, belief, psychological factors, health system-related factors, and socio-cultural factors emerged during the data analysis. Conclusions: The findings of this study indicated that a combination of factors prevented women from cervical cancer screening in Kurdistan Region, Iraq. Understanding these factors may lead to the development of effective programs and policies to reduce these barriers and improve cervical cancer screening uptake.