Factors associated with non-attendance, opportunistic attendance and reminded attendance to cervical screening in an organized screening program: a cross-sectional study of 12,058 Norwegian women.

BACKGROUND: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality may be reduced by organized screening. Participant compliance with the attendance recommendations of the screening program is necessary to achieve this. Knowledge about the predictors of compliance is needed in order to enhance screening attendance. METHODS: The Norwegian Co-ordinated Cervical Cancer Screening Program (NCCSP) registers all cervix cytology diagnoses in Norway and individually reminds women who have no registered smear for the past three years to make an appointment for screening. In the present study, a questionnaire on lifestyle and health was administered to a random sample of Norwegian women. The response rate was 68%. To address the predictors of screening attendance for the 12,058 women aged 25-45 who were eligible for this study, individual questionnaire data was linked to the cytology registry of the NCCSP. We distinguished between non-attendees, opportunistic attendees and reminded attendees to screening for a period of four years. Predictors of non-attendance versus attendance and reminded versus opportunistic attendance were established by multivariate logistic regression. RESULTS: Women who attended screening were more likely than non-attendees to report that they were aware of the recommended screening interval, a history of sexually transmitted infections and a history of hormonal contraceptive and condom use. Attendance was also positively associated with being married/cohabiting, being a non-smoker and giving birth. Women who attended after being reminded were more likely than opportunistic attendees to be aware of cervical cancer and the recommended screening interval, but less likely to report a history of sexually transmitted infections and hormonal contraceptive use. Moreover, the likelihood of reminded attendance increased with age. Educational level did not significantly affect the women's attendance status in the fully adjusted models. CONCLUSIONS: The likelihood of attendance in an organized screening program was higher among women who were aware of cervical screening, which suggests a potential for a higher attendance rate through improving the public knowledge of screening. Further, the lower awareness among opportunistic than reminded attendees suggests that physicians may inform their patients better when smears are taken at the physician's initiative.

Performance of human papillomavirus DNA and mRNA testing strategies for women with and without cervical neoplasia.

In the present study we investigated the cross-sectional positivity for DNA and E6/E7 mRNA from high-risk human papillomavirus (HPV) types in 643 women with high-grade cervical neoplasia (135 cases of cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2 [CIN2], 495 cases of CIN3/adenocarcinoma in situ [ACIS], and 13 cases of invasive carcinoma) and in 736 women with normal cytology by using the Amplicor and PreTect HPV-Proofer assays. In addition, genotyping was performed using Linear Array for women with normal cytology and a positive HPV test and in all women with histologically confirmed CIN2+. In women with normal cytology, 8.3% (61/736) were Amplicor positive and 3.3% (24/736) were PreTect HPV-Proofer positive (P < 0.001). Concordant results between the Amplicor and PreTect HPV-Proofer tests were present in 90.3% (665/736). In women with CIN2+ lesions 96.4% (620/643) were positive by Amplicor, 98.4% (633/643) by linear array, and 64.1% (412/643) by PreTect HPV-Proofer. Concordant results for the three HPV assays were present in 63.8%. The genotype profile detected by linear array and PreTect HPV-Proofer showed substantial agreement for HPV types 16, 18, 33, and 45. HPV type 16 and/or 18 was detected in 58.8% (378/643) of the women with high-grade neoplasia. Detection of E6/E7 mRNA by PreTect HPV-Proofer increased with severity of the cervical lesion. Detection of HPV DNA, however, was not associated with histology grade. In conclusion, the detection of HPV varied according to the assay used, and the concordance between the tests was poor. Our results indicate that mRNA testing may be a biomarker for progression of cervical neoplasia, but the optimal genotype mix remains to be determined.

Validity of self-reported Pap smear history in Norwegian women.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the validity of self-reported Papanicolau (Pap) smear history in Norwegian women and to identify characteristics that influence the validity. METHODS: Interview data from a sample of 16,574 Norwegian women, aged 18-45, in 2004-2005, was compared with information from the population-based cytology register. Crude validity in the self-reports with respect to ever/never having taken a Pap smear was summarized. The validity of the reported interval since last Pap smear was assessed by a smoothed distribution of the reported interval, stratified by the registered interval. Characteristics of influence on validity were identified by logistic regression for true positives (sensitivity and positive predictive value), true negatives (specificity and negative predictive value) and for more than one year discrepancy in time since last Pap smear, between reported and registered interval. RESULTS: Overall validity was summarized by: concordance = 0.9, sensitivity = 0.97, positive predictive value = 0.92, specificity = 0.55, negative predictive value = 0.78 and report-to-records ratio = 1.51. The variance in the reported interval increased proportionally with the registered interval, and women tended to underestimate the interval (telescoping). Age and registered number of years since last Pap smear had the strongest influence on ever/never and time interval validity, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Estimated screening rates, based on self-reporting without organized screening, are biased. Telescoping leads to increased risk for developing invasive disease, because women will postpone their next Pap smear.