Abstract:
Background: Cervical cancer is the 2nd most frequent and top killer cancer among women in
Ethiopia. As part of alleviating the problem, screening using visual inspection with acetic acid
and treatment with cryotherapy has been started in Ethiopia on September 2010 although the
service is still not popular and factors associated with precancerous cervical lesions is not
studied at the study clinic.
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess prevalence and factors associated with
precancerous cervical lesions among clients screened at Family Guidance Association of
Ethiopia, south west area office, Jimma model clinic, Jimma.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted at Family Guidance Association of Ethiopia,
south west area office, Jimma model clinic, Jimma from September 11,2013 to October 11, 2013
G.C. Pertinent data of all the 334screened clients were transferred from client evaluation form
for cervical cancer prevention service to Epidata version 3.1using checklist, double data entry
verification done and exported to SPSS version16.0.After cleaning the data, descriptive analysis
was done to describe variables involved in the study and logistic regression model was used to
identify predictors of precancerous cervical lesions. Statistical Significance was declared at
P<0.05.
Result: Out of 334 screened clients, 43(12.9%) had precancerous cervical lesions. Early
initiation of sexual intercourse, at age less than 16years ,was found to be an independent
predictor, increasing the risk of precancerous cervical lesion by 2.2times as compared to clients
who started sexual intercourse at the age of 16 or more years (AOR [95%CI] =2.2[1.1, 4.3]).
Conclusion and recommendation: Early initiation of sexual intercourse was an independent
predictor of precancerous cervical lesion in this study. Thus, any cervical cancer prevention and
control effort should address the problem of early initiation of sexual intercourse.
