Background: Cervical cancer is the most common cancer among Indian women of the reproductive age. Even though cervical cancer is a preventable cancer through regular screening, only a small proportion of the eligible women undergo Pap smear screening due to ignorance of risk factors, symptoms and prevention, stigma and misconceptions about gynecological diseases and lack of national cervical cancer screening guidelines. Materials and methods: A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted to assess cervical cancer screening behavior among women in the group of 30–60 years of age residing in selected tribal settlements of Idukki district Kerala using multistage cluster sampling. Practice assessment questionnaire was used to collect cervical cancer screening behavior among women. It consisted of 12 questions related to preventive strategies of cervical cancer. Data were entered and analyzed using SPSS 20. Results: Majority of the women participated in the study belonged to nuclear family (74.4%) and Hindu religion (88.8%). Majority of the women were either housewives (44.4%) or labourers (42.7%). Study findings also revealed that highest proportion of subjects 84.6% had poor practice and 15.4% had average practice regarding prevention of cervical cancer. Significant association was found between practice regarding prevention of cervical cancer with education (p < 0.001), type of family (p = 0.015), income (p = 0.002), age at the time of marriage (p = 0.003), number of pregnancies (p = 0.025) and number of children (p = 0.002). Conclusion: Majority of the women were not following suggested recommendations for regular cervical cancer screening. Therefore it is important develop strategies targeting eligible women to increase utilization of cervical cancer screening services.

Keywords: Cervical cancer; Women; Screening behavior.