Cervical Cancer: A study has claimed that mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability and substance abuse double the risk of cervical cancer in women. This is because most women do not go ahead to get the smear test done. Very few women are aware of their health and get smear test done. Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute have emphasized the importance of women being aware of cervical cancer.
According to this study published in The Lancet Public Health, more than 4 million women born between 1940 and 1995 were included in this research. Researchers compared women with mental illness, neuropsychiatric disability, and substance use who did not get tested, with women who got tested regularly. They then calculated their risk of cervical cancer including their participation in screening programs for cervical cancer.
Danger to drug addicts!
Kejia Hu, from the Institute of Environmental Medicine at the Karolinska Institutet, said: “Our results suggest that women with these problems rarely participate in screening programs at the same time, because their cervix is more likely to have legions.” Hu said that we found that they have twice the risk of developing cervical cancer. Researchers also said that the risk of this disease was also seen in women who consume drugs.
Women should do regular test
Karin Sundström, senior researcher at the Karolinska Institute’s Department of Laboratory Medicine and one of the authors of the study, said that women with mental illness should continue to get themselves examined regularly. Because this will help in reducing the risk of cancer. One shortcoming of this study was that the researchers did not have complete data on other risk factors for cervical cancer such as smoking, hormonal contraceptives and sexually transmitted infections.
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