PERCEPTION AND UTILIZATION OF CYTOPATHOLOGY BY MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS IN LAGOS

Abstract

Background: Cancer is an emerging public health
problem in Africa especially with increasing exposure to
risky life styles and environmental carcinogens. The use
of cytopathology is still dismally poor and essentially
restricted to a small number of health facilities. This paper
examined the perception of medical practitioners on nongynaecologic
cytology (NGC) and the utilization of this
very important investigative tool amongst medical
practitioners.
Methodology: This is a cross-sectional study of
knowledge, perception and use of NGC by medical
practitioners in public and private health institutions in
Lagos State. A total of 260 questionnaires were
distributed with 130 each to the private and public
institution practitioners. The data was analyzed using
IBM SPSS version 20 and were presented in tables,
frequencies and percentages. Level of statistical
significance was set at p<0.05.
Results: The mean age of the respondents in both
groups was 45 ± 12.05 years. Only 50% and 60% of
private practitioners have requested for fluid cytology and
fine needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) respectively for a
maximum of 2 times in their medical career. The overall
knowledge showed that 11.1% of private practitioners
had poor knowledge of cytology as against 0.9% of their
public institution counterparts.
Conclusions: There is good knowledge of NGC amongst
doctors but with no reciprocal use of the investigation.
The request for fluid cytology and FNAC is very poor
amongst the private practitioners. We recommend
further training and continuous medical education to
doctors especially the private practitioners to increase
their awareness and to improve the utilisation of the test.