Effect of a Health Communication Strategy on Uptake of Cervical Cancer Screening in Isiolo County, Kenya

Background: To assess the effect of a health communication strategy on women’s community-level uptake of cervical cancer screening in Isiolo County. Purpose: to determine the effect of a health communication strategy on women’s community-level uptake of cervical cancer screening in Isiolo County. Methodology: The study adopted a community-based cluster randomized trial design. Multi-stage sampling was used to derive the sample size. There were 444 women overall, varying in age from 15 to 65 years. Community Health Volunteers disseminated health information to the intervention arm of study and referred participants to link health facilities for screening. An interviewer-administered questionnaire was used for data collection. The research was done between February and August of 2022. Findings: At baseline, the study findings showed that 18.2% of respondents had ever been screened. Reasons for not screening included: fear (12%); feeling healthy (17%) among others. At post-intervention, the cervical cancer screening uptake among the respondents in the intervention arm was found to have increased from 18.2% to 45.9%, while that of the control arm remained at 18%. Respondents in the study’s intervention arm had a 3.867 higher chances of being screened than respondents in the control arm (OR 3.849, CI.1.802- 8.223, P<0.001) Conclusion: At baseline, the screening uptake for cancer of the cervix was low. The existing communication strategies in Isiolo County were limited in addressing cervical cancer. Targeted health communication on cervical cancer screening by Community Health Volunteers, subsequently cervical cancer screening uptake post-intervention.