ABSTRACT
Another study was performed in China, titled "The knowledge and attitude of cancer prevention among
90 junior high school teachers," by National Yang-Min.g Medical College. The results showed that the cogmzance rate of cervical cancer as the leading cancer (by that time) and the most curable for women in Taiwan was 69.3% and 37.5%, respectively. Pap smear was
Seyami and her colleagues studied the "knowledge and behavior (Pap smear) of women who referred to Tehran Health Centers." Findings showed that the knowledge of the majority of the participants (75.7%)
The study done by Baradaran and Alizadeh in Tabriz Iran on the topic "Nurses' and teachers' knowl~dge, ~ttitude, and practice regarding prevention
in Prevention of Cervical Cancer
of cervical cancer" enhances the subject in this respect. I45 the third as experimental group 2. Regarding the numThey indicated that 73.9% of nurses and 33.3% of her of teachers in each district, the samples were choteachers had appropriate knowledge and 17.4% of sen via stratification sampling from each high school. nurses and 20% of teachers had a positive attitude in The self-structured questionnaire was evaluated by this regard. Regarding regular performing of Pap I 0 experts in nursing and midwifery science, and onsmear, 95.6% of nurses and 90% of teachers had poor I 50 cology practitioners and its format were also considpractice. 12 ered by a statistics expert. Another factor that contrib-
Dignan et al. performed a survey on the topic "Ef-uted to content validity was the theoretical concepts fectiveness of health education to increase screening that were operationalized on the basis of previous studfor cervical cancer among Eastern-band Cherokee In-ies. Reliability was measured by test-retest. The Peardian women in North Carolina." The results showed I 55 son correlation coefficient for knowledge items was r = that women who received the educational programs 0.87 and for attitude items was r = 0.85. exhibited a greater knowledge about cervical cancer The questionnaire contained 4 parts: there were 7 prevention and were more likely to have reported hav-questions on demographic characteristics, 24 relating to ing had a Pap smear within the past year than did knowledge, 16 on attitude, and 11 questions on pracwomen who did not receive the educational pro-160 tice. The questionnaires were completed by the teachgrams. 17 ers. After reviewing them, the researchers identified the
Mcavoy and her colleagues showed that health edu-educational requirements of the teachers. Based on the cation interventions increased the uptake of cervical information collected and following the opinions of cytology among Asian women in Leicester who had experts, books, and various articles, pamphlets and the never been tested. Personal visits were most effective, I65 texts of lectures together with 10 flash cards that inirrespective of the health education materials used, but eluded basic points related to Pap smear were provided. there was some evidence that home videos may be par-Pamphlets were then distributed among the teachers in ticularly effective in one of the most hard to reach group 1, and the teachers in group 2 were educated, in groups. 18 a session of 30 minutes, through a lecture and flash
Method I70 cards. The control group did not receive any education. This study is a quasi-experimental research. To do The part of the questionnaire related to knowledge and
this, 129 teachers were chosen as the sample, all from attitude was again completed after 2 weeks and the part among women high school teachers teaching in Tabriz. related to practice was completed after 2 months for the
The sample was randomly divided into 3 groups, 3 groups. each group comprising 43 teachers. Thus, 43 teachers 175 Only married teachers (who have sexual activity) were included in the control group, 43 teachers in ex-were included in the study as Iranian culture and reliperimental group I, being educated by pamphlets, and gious norms permit women to have sexual activity only 43 teachers in experimental group 2, being educated by after marriage. a lecture and flash cards. To analyze the data, descriptive statistics such as
Cluster sampling was used for data gathering. 180 mean and standard deviation and analytical statistics Three high schools from each of the 5 education dis-such as test and 1-way ANOV A were used. tricts in Tabriz were chosen and overall 15 high schools were randomly selected. From the 3 high schools in each district, randomly one was assumed as control group, the second as experimental group I, and
in Prevention of Cervical Cancer
Preeducation t Posteducationt
Experimental Experimental Control Experimental Experimental Control Attitude group l group 2 group group l group 2 group Attitude,%
Negative (16-48) Positive ( 49-80)
Attitude score
39.5 60.5
44.2 55.8
20.9 0.0 39.5 79.1 lOO 60.5
Mean 5l.l6 49.84 49.35 54.19 58.21 50.28 SD 5.17 5.81 5.87 5.02 5.84 7.25
Results The average age of the teachers in group 1 was
36.28 years, 36.17 in group 2, and 37.74 in the control group. The average age at the first marriage was 23.93 in group 1, 24.79 in group 2, and 25.16 in the control group. The average number of pregnancies was 1.84 in group 1, 1.81 in group 2, and 1.79 in the control group.
