Interferência da pandemia da COVID-19 na prevenção do câncer do colo do útero nas regiões de saúde de um estado do nordeste brasileiro : o olhar da enfermagem

Abstract

Introduction: Cervical cancer (CC) has been identified as a public health problem in developing countries, revealing high mortality rates among women of low socioeconomic status. The prevention of this pathology took a different direction due to the Covid 19 pandemic, in addition to the limitation of affected women in hospital environments and the modification of treatment modalities to reduce the postponement of surgical intervention for benign tumors. Objective: To analyze the interference of the covid-19 pandemic in the prevention of cervical cancer in the health regions of the State of Alagoas. Methodology: This is an ecological research, with a descriptive observational quantitative approach. The inclusion criteria for the subjects were: women aged between 25 and 59 years, who underwent preventive examination in the public network and women who were registered in the SISAB database. The exclusion criterion was: women who had not started their sexual life. Approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Alagoas, CAAE nº 59049922.0.0000.5013. The information was collected from July to September 2022, using information from the Primary Care Information System (SISAB) database made available by the Ministry of Health (DATASUS) through TABNET in the health regions of the state of Alagoas. Statistics were constructed using the statistical package R version 4.3.0 (R Core Team, April/2023), descriptive and inferential analyzes were carried out for the data obtained in this study. Results: Reports on cervical cancer prevention throughout the state of Alagoas demonstrate the harm and difficulties encountered during the pandemic due to low adherence to preventive exams, which is an aggravating factor in the care of sexually active women. Conclusion: The entire state of Alagoas suffered losses in the prevention of cervical cancer due to the Covid 19 pandemic, showing a 23.4% decrease in exams carried out in 2020 and 2021 compared to 2018 and 2019.