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TUESDAY, Jan. 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Less than two-thirds of eligible 30- to 65-year-old women are up to date with cervical cancer screening, and Pap completion rates have decreased over time, according to a study published online Jan. 7 in the Journal of Women’s Health<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Kathy L. MacLaughlin, M.D., from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and colleagues used data from the Rochester Epidemiology Project (2005 through 2016) to calculate three-year (Pap) and five-year (Pap-HPV) moving prevalence rates of screening as a proportion of the eligible population.<\/p>\n
The researchers found that in 2016, 64.6 percent of 27,418 eligible 30- to 65-year-old women were up to date with cervical cancer screening, and 60.8 percent had undergone Pap-HPV cotest screening. For all age groups, there were significant declines in Pap completion rates over time; however, Pap-HPV cotesting significantly increased at the same time among women aged 30 to 65 years, from 10 percent in 2007 to 60.8 percent in 2016.<\/p>\n
“These cervical cancer [screening] rates are unacceptably low,” MacLaughlin said in a statement. “We, as clinicians, must start thinking outside the box on how best to reach these women and ensure they are receiving these effective and potentially life-saving screening tests.”<\/p>\n
One author serves on committees overseeing safety studies of HPV vaccines funded by Merck.<\/p>\n