BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer ranks fourth among the malignancies in women worldwide and remains to be one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality despite being a highly preventable disease. With this alarming burden, efforts are geared towards prevention with the strengthening of opportunistic screening programs to encourage women to be assessed.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine if there will be increase in the cervical cancer screening utilization rate if an opportunistic screening program was introduced in the patients' waiting area during regular health consultation services.

SUBJECTS AND SETTING: Female patients aged 21-65 years who consulted at the University of the Philippines -- Philippine General Hospital Out-patient Department Family Medicine Clinic (UP-PGH OPD FMC) in July 2014 were included in the study.

DESIGN: The study was a before and after design. Women who were eligible to be screened were invited during the month long program implementation and those who agreed were asked to choose their preferred screening method between Pap smear and VIA.

DATA COLLECTION: Data was collected through a self-administered questionnaire and recorded with the gynecological examination findings and result of the screening procedure. Utilization rates during the period of opportunistic screening was compared to that of the previous month when there was no existing program and the mean change was determined.

RESULTS: The utilization rate with the intervention was 27%, an increase by 25% from the previous month's 2% utilization rate. There were more women (166, 38%) who preferred screening through VIA over Pap smear (69,16%). Majority of the subjects were married, housewife, with high school education and multiparous. Most of the women in the study had no previous screening and were not informed about cervical cancer.

CONCLUSION: Opportunistic screening program in the Family Medicine Clinic had increased the screening uptake of women when given during waiting hours of regular health clinic consultations, and offering VIA as an option for screening procedure further increased cervical cancer screening.

Human ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Acetic Acid ; Uterine Cervical Neoplasms- ; Mass Screening, diagnosis ; Papanicolaou Test

Background: Since its surfacing in 2019, COVID-19 has spread all over the world and became an international concern. Vaccines against COVID-19 are expected to be the key in controlling this pandemic. To achieve this, studying factors that affect COVID-19 vaccine acceptance is crucial in order to increase the vaccine uptake rate of Filipinos to attain herd immunity. Objective: The study aimed to determine the factors affecting COVID-19 vaccine acceptance among adult patients in primary care clinics in Laguna, Las Piñas and Parañaque. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted last June 2021 with 137 adult patients from 6 clinics. The participants were given self-administered questionnaires containing items on sociodemographic profile and perception on vaccines. MS Excel and IBM SPSS were used for statistical analysis. Categorical variables were summarized as frequencies and percentages and continuous variables as means and standard deviations. Chi square was used to compare outcomes. Variables with statistically significant differences (p-value of <0.05) were included in multinomial regression analysis to determine association with vaccine acceptance. Results: Residence (p=0.0166), educational level (p=0.017), perceived effectiveness of vaccines to prevent and control COVID-19 (p=0.001), safety (p=0.001), doctor’s recommendation (p=0.039), risk of being infected (p=0.025) and refusal of any type of vaccine in the past (p=0.003) were associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. Conclusion Through this study, the authors found that most of the respondents are willing to get vaccinated regardless of their sociodemographic characteristics. Concerns about vaccine availability and accessibility can hinder the promotion of vaccine uptake in the future. This study can be used as a basis for development and planning of COVID -19 vaccination programs.
COVID-19 ; COVID-19 Vaccines