Barriers and Facilitators to Cervical Cancer Screening Uptake Among Rural Women in Benue State: A Mixed-Methods Inquiry

Background: Cervical cancer screening uptake among rural Nigerian women remains critically low despite available low-cost screening technologies. Quantifying barriers and facilitators through rigorous mixed-methods inquiry is essential for designing effective nurse-led screening outreach programmes. Aim: This study examined barriers and facilitators to cervical cancer screening uptake among rural women in Benue State, North Central Nigeria. Methods: A concurrent mixed-methods design recruited 200 women aged 25 to 65 for questionnaire administration and 24 for semi-structured qualitative interviews across four rural local government areas. Descriptive statistics and multivariate logistic regression analysed quantitative data. Thematic analysis was applied to qualitative data. Results: Screening uptake was 14.5%. Key barriers included fear of positive results, spousal disapproval, long distance to screening centres, and poor awareness. Facilitators included peer referral, trust in female health workers, and free service availability. Conclusion: Integrating free visual inspection with acetic acid screening into community health nursing visits, with culturally sensitive male partner engagement, is the most effective strategy to improve uptake in Benue State. Keywords: cervical cancer screening, rural women, Benue State, barriers, mixed methods.