Perception and Acceptability of Self-sampling for Human Papillomavirus Among Female Gynecology Clinic Attendees in a Tertiary Hospital in South-West Nigeria

Background and aims: Globally, the mortality rates for cervical cancer remain alarmingly high, underscoring, differences in the effectiveness of preventative and corrective actions particularly in middle-income countries. The investigation of this study focuses on perception and acceptability Self sampling for HPVamong female gynaecology clinic attendees in a tertiary Hospital, in South West Nigeria.
Methods: This 2022 research utilized a cross-sectional design and 256 participants aged 25-65 years who were regular attendees of gynaecology clinics, selected via simple random sampling, answered a semi-structured questionnaire on HPV Self-Sampling . Statistical analyses were conducted on the collected data, including presentation of percentages and examination of associations using Fisher's exact test and logistic regression at a significance level of 0.05.
Results: The participants had an average age of 35.8±9.7 years, and almost all (98.0%) were literate. The mean perception score of respondents was 9.4±3.1 where about one-quarter 25.8% had a negative perception. The mean acceptability score of respondents was 9.2±1.7 In contrast, a minimal proportion of individuals (3.5%) expressed a low level of acceptability. A portion of the participants 56 (21.9%) agreed that self-sampling is only necessary if one has a family history of cervical cancer, many 161 (62.9%)  had low education on self-sampling.
Conclusion: In this study many participants had a good perception and almost all had a high level of acceptability. Inadequate education on self-sampling and poor perception was related with a low level of acceptability of HPV self-sampling indicating