Woman’s understanding of cervical cancer and screening PDF

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research topic
Woman’s understanding of cervical cancer and screening: a descriptive qualitative study
Project layout or Summary
Cervical cancer occurs inthe cervical area of women. It is located in the lower part of
the uterus which connects to the vagina. Numerous strains of the human papillomavirus
(HPV), a sexually transmitted virus is the min causative agent of the cervical cancer.
According to the National Health Service [NHS] (2018), the best way to provide protection
from the cervical cancer is via attending the cervical screening test which is previously
referred as smear test. The NHS Cervical screening programme is open for the women
between the age group of the 25 to 64 years. Women between the age group of 25 to 49 years
are screened after every 3 years. Women aged between 50 to 64 years are screened after
every 5 years. According to Cancer Research UK (2018), 99.8% of cervical cancer cases are
preventable if early screening is undertaken. In UK there are 3,200 cases of cervical cancer
each year accounting to 9 new cases per day. Cancer Research UK (2018) stated that high
reported cases of cervical cancer in UK demonstrate that there is lack of proper screening of
the cervical cancer. Thus the aim of the study was to analyze the perceived barriers among
the women understanding of cervical cancer and screening process. In order to conduct the
study, the author will perform descriptive qualitative research with semi-structured open-
ended interview. Total of 15 respondents, will be recruited in the interview. The potential
outcome of the study will help the understand the principal psychological and other
underlying barriers among the women towards undertaking cervical screening process. The
analysis of the perceived barriers will help to frame interventions in order to improve the
overall screening of cervical cancer and this help in early detection and proper treatment of
the disease towards effective cure for better health and well-being.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Background of the Study
According to the Cancer Research UK (2018), there are 3,200 cases of cervical cancer
in the UK each year. The incidence rate is higher among the women who are aged between
25 to 29 years, as highlighted during the census of 2013 to 2015 (Cancer Research UK 2018).
The women residing in the deprived areas of the England are the common victims. Among
the women, white females are accounts for more records in the cervical cancer in comparison
to the Asian females (Cancer Research UK 2018). A woman risk of developing cervical
cancer is modulated by different factors like age, genetic pre-disposition and exposure to
several other risk factors, which are potentially avoidable like lifestyle factors (Cancer
Research UK 2018). In the UK, cervical cancer is mainly caused by infection (99.8% of the
cases) and smoking (21% of the cases). According to the Cancer Research UK (2018) the
majority of the cases cervical cancers go unreported due to the fear or shame. More than 40%
of the women worry that their partner might feel that they are unfaithful. While others worry
that people might refuse of accept their social presence due to Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
infection in their cervix. Another set of women think that being detected with cervical cancer
might eventually lead to death. These perceptions hamper the early screening process of
cervical cancer (Velindre NHS Trust Project 2017).
The sample for cervical cancer screening is collected via rotating an extended tip
spatula around the transformation zone, following the vagina. Cells are scraped from the
spatula over a slide, fixed and then sent to a laboratory for staining followed by manual
screening or automatic or semi-automatic screening (Velindre NHS Trust Project 2017). The
early detection of the cases of cervical cancer is followed by the tumour removal by surgery
or through the use of the radiotherapy or cancer therapy (Cancer Research UK 2018). In order
to understand the women understanding about the screening of the cervical cancer, a detailed
review of literature is important.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Literature Review
A literature search was done in order to extrapolate the existing research into the
barriers of the early screening of the women with cervical cancer. The databases used for the
conduction of the literature search include CINAHL, Medline, Web of Science and
COCHRANE. The main keywords which were used for the search of the scientific articles in
the electronic databases are highlighted below in the table
Keywords Used For Database Search
1. Cervical Cancer Screening OR Screening of Cervical Cancer
AND
2. Women OR Female
AND
3. Barriers OR Problem
The search of the scientific articles was done with the use of the above mentioned
keywords. The authors also used Boolean Operators (AND/OR). According to Parahoo
(2014), the use of the Boolean operators helps to refine the search.(According to Aveyard
(2014), having a proper plan for conducting the search of the literary articles helps to retrieve
relevant research articles. Coughlan, Cronin and Ryan (2013)(et al)and Polit and Beck (2014)
further highlighted that proper plan for the conduction of the research deals with formulation
of the proper inclusion and the exclusion criteria of the research
It helps to filter out the irrelevant articles that falls outside the scope of the research
topic. The inclusion and the exclusion criteria that were used for the search of the literary
articles from the electronic database include
Inclusion Criteria Exclusion Criteria
Time Frame: 2013 to 2018 Papers published before 2013
Language: English
Population: Women Between the age group of 18 to
65 years
Women below the 18 years and
who are above 65-year