Motivos relacionados à não realização do exame Papanicolau por mulheres de uma comunidade quilombola

Abstract

Cervical cancer is a kind of cancer that stands out as one of the major health problems in Brazil and in the world, especially in developing countries. Screening tests for early detection is important for the control of the number of women who will develop cancer as well as to the percentage of cure of those who prematurely diagnosis the disease. Based on that, this study aimed to identify the reasons why these women didn't seek the services for cytological examination. This is also a qualitative, descriptive and explanatory study, approved by the Ethics in Reseach Committee of the Federal University of Alagoas, carried out with seven women in Muquém village, located 5 kilometers from União dos Palmares downtown. Data collection occurred after the approval of Ethic Committee through the application of a semistructured interview which was recorded and later transcribed. Data obtained were submitted to analysis under the Dorothea Elizabeth Orem's Theory, subsidized by the analysis of Bardin's conceptions. Results obtained with analysis showed that the majority of women mentioned fear and shame as reasons for not getting examinations thus corroborating with the majority of studies researched. In addition, the large majority of the women interviewed asserted that they had never received any kind of information about the examination from health professionals. Therefore, it becomes increasingly clear with this study that the feelings related to the screening tests affects the search on information and services for prevention.