[Screening profile of women who have died from cervical cancer]

Every year about 400 women in Denmark are diagnosed with cervical cancer and more than 175 die from the disease. Studies show that the majority of patients did not participate in screening programmes and that a significant number of non-participants died from the disease compared to participants with two or more previous cervical smears. The aim was to investigate the screening profile of women who died from cervical cancer compared to a control group.

A total of 72 patients were included in a case-control study. Five cases were excluded. One geographical and age-matched control person was drawn by the Danish Civil Registration System. All data files about the disease and screening profile of every case and control person were registered in a data base. The statistics were performed by the chi2-test with Yates correction.

63% of the patients were non-participants compared to 49% of the controls. The study showed that elderly women in particular are insufficiently screened as 65% of cases as well as controls at 60 years or older were non-participants.

The fact that non-participants suffered from advanced cervical cancers compared to the participants at the time of diagnosis means that increase of the response rate must be the focus of attention in the future.