A Case Control Study on the Risk Factors of Cervical Cancer among Women in a Coastal City of South India

Background Cervical cancer is one of the major leading causes of death among women globally and majority of the cases are from developing country. India, which has one sixth of the world population, bears one fifth of the world burden of the disease. Despite being a preventable disease, cervical cancer claims the lives of almost half a million women worldwide each year. Objective To study the profile of cervical cancer patients and to estimate the strength of association of the most contributing risk factors to cervical cancer. Methodology A case control study was carried out and random sampling was done to select cases and controls. A total number of 51 subjects, which comprises of 26 cases and 25 controls was included in the study. The study was conducted in 3 hospitals in Mangalore namely Government Wenlock Hospital, Lady Goshen Hospital and KMC Attavar Hospital. Data was collected by means of semi-structured questionnaires, and analyzed using SPSS version 11. Results The following parameters were identified as risk factors of cervical carcinoma with accordance of strength of association are personal hygiene (p=0.001 for washing vagina after coitus, p=0.012 for daily bath), multiparity (p=0.012), menopausal status (p=0.016), addiction to tobacco (p=0.21) and low socioeconomic status (p=0.25) has been found. Conclusion Being one of the preventable leading causes of deaths among women, it is important to identify the risk factors associated with cervical carcinoma in hope that preventive measures can be taken earlier to reduce morbidity and mortality among women due to the malignancy.