Open AccessA PILOT CERVICAL CYTOLOGY SCREENING SERVICE IN PERTH
Author(s) -
Lumsden Gretchen,
Armstrong Bruce K.,
Nandakumar Ambakumar
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
community health studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.946
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1753-6405
pISSN - 0314-9021
DOI - 10.1111/j.1753-6405.1986.tb00097.x
Subject(s) - medicine , embarrassment , attendance , socioeconomic status , population , cervical screening , family medicine , quarter (canadian coin) , gynecology , demography , pediatrics , cervical cancer , psychology , environmental health , social psychology , archaeology , cancer , sociology , economics , history , economic growth
The characteristics of 570 women attending a pilot cervical cytology clinic in Perth in 1984 and their past experience of cervical cytology and breast self‐examination (BSE) have been described. Attendance from the population in which the clinic was located was highest between about 35–39 and 60–64 years of age, in Australian‐born women and in women of high socioeconomic status. More than a quarter of those attending gave a preference for a female doctor or embarrassment as their reason for attending the clinic rather than their general practitioner (GP). Desire to attend a special interest clinic and convenience were other major reasons for attendance. Only about 40 per cent of women attending had had smears on average at three‐year intervals or more often over an “at risk” period between 25 and 70 years of age. At the time of attendance 65.8 per cent of attenders were defined as needing a cervical smear in that they had not had one since 1981 or had never had one. On this basis those most likely to need a smear were older women, those of low socioeconomic status, those who gave embarrassment as their reason for preferring the clinic to their GP and those who preferred a female doctor for the taking of a smear. There was evidence that a small group of women attended the clinic sooner, on average, after their last smear than others, because they had symptoms (11.5 per cent) or had had an abnormal smear previously (4.2 per cent). Overall, 13.2 per cent of women attending the clinic performed BSE monthly and 51.0 per cent did not do it at all. BSE was most commonly performed by women 35–54 years of age.