A prospective randomised structured questionnaire survey of 254 women in the low socio-economic class attending the general outpatient clinic at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan revealed a high level of ignorance concerning cervical cancer prevention programmes. Only 3.5% of subjects have heard of a Papanicolaou smear and only 1.2% have had the test prior to this study. Peers (36%) were the most common source of information on cervical smears. The majority (84.6%) of the women were willing to be screened, however only 5.1% of those willing (4.3% of the women studied) actually reported for the test. Twenty-two percent (219) had high knowledge about cervical smears while moderate and poor knowledge were demonstrated in 33% respectively. Eleven per cent had no knowledge whatever. No significant association was found between the knowledge score on Papanicolaou smear and other variables. The cost of the test appeared to have prevented many of the women from having the test. It is recommended that more efforts need to be put into health education of women stressing the importance of the test and its availability.