Revista Brasileira de Saúde Materno Infantil (Dec 2005)

Exame para detecção precoce do câncer cérvico-uterino: vivência de mulheres das cidades de Kobe e Kawasaki, Japão e São Paulo, Brasil Cervical cancer screening: experience of women from Kobe and Kawasaki cities, Japan and São Paulo city, Brazil

  • Rosa Yuka Sato Chubaci,
  • Miriam Aparecida Barbosa Merighi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1590/S1519-38292005000400011
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 5, no. 4
pp. 471 – 481

Abstract

Read online

OBJETIVOS: estudar a vivência de mulheres japonesas e mulheres brasileiras descendentes de japoneses, quanto a exame precoce do câncer cérvico-uterino. MÉTODOS: estudo quantitativo, de caráter exploratório, das características das mulheres quanto ao exame Papanicolaou. Participaram do estudo 149 mulheres: 79 japonesas e 70 brasileiras descendentes de japoneses. RESULTADOS: a grande maioria das mulheres (82,6%) realizou o exame Papanicolaou, e as brasileiras submeteram-se mais a esse tipo de exame que as japonesas. A maioria das brasileiras (64,6%) foi incentivada a fazer o exame pelo seu ginecologista, enquanto 26,2% das japonesas foram motivadas por campanhas de prevenção; maior proporção de japonesas (53,6%) teve dificuldade para realizar o exame que as brasileiras (10,8%), sendo a "vergonha" a principal dificuldade relatada pelas japonesas. 48,6% das brasileiras e 31,5% das japonesas atribuíram suas razões para realizar o exame à importância de evitar doenças ginecológicas. CONCLUSÕES: as razões apresentadas pelas mulheres deste estudo para não realizarem o exame de Papanicolaou sugerem aspectos importantes a serem reconsiderados pelos profissionais de saúde que atuam na área da saúde da mulher.OBJECTIVES: this work aimed at studying the experience of Japanese women and Brazilian women from Japanese descent submited theirselves to cervical cancer screening. METHODS: an exploratory quantitative study, was performed intending to know women's characteristics typical of their nationality and their attitude towards the Papanicolaou smear. The number of participants was 149 women, 79 Japanese and 70 Brazilian. RESULTS: the main results showed that the large majority of women (82.6%) submitted themselves to the cervical cancer screening. The Brazilian women (92.9%) showed a higher participation percentage than the Japanese (73.4%) women. The majority of Brazilian women (64.6%) were encouraged by their gynecologist to run the Papanicolaou smear, whereas 26.2% of Japanese women were encouraged by prevention campaigns. Japanese women (53.6%) had greater difficulty in submitting to the test than the Brazilian group (10.8%). The greatest difficulty of the Japanese women (58,7%) was their sense of "shame" to run the Papanicolaou smear. CONCLUSIONS: the reasons presented by the women for not running the Papanicolaou Test points out to many important issues which need to be reconsidered by health professionals working with women's health.

Keywords