Protection motivation theory in predicting cervical cancer screening participation: A longitudinal study in rural...

To examine factors longitudinally associated with cervical cancer screening uptake among rural Chinese women, guided by protection motivation theory (PMT).

A large sample of women (n = 2408, aged 35-65 years old) was randomly selected from a rural county in China in 2015 and followed up for 2 years. Data for demographic factors, knowledge of cervical cancer screening, screening outcome, and six PMT constructs measured at the baseline in 2015 were used to predict cervical cancer screening participation at the follow-up in 2017 using structural equation model method.

Among the 2408 women at the baseline, 1879 (78.03%) participated in the screening services at the follow-up. In addition to significant direct effect of age, social status and baseline screening outcome, and three (perceived severity, fear arousal and response efficacy) of the six PMT subconstructs, four variables (age, social status, knowledge of cervical cancer screening, and baseline screening outcome) at the baseline were indirectly associated with screening participation, mediated by the three significant PMT subconstructs.

Findings of this study indicate that the rate of participating in cervical cancer screening for rural women needs to be further improved. In addition to the commonly reported influential factors, PMT subconstructs play important roles in encouraging rural women in China to participate in cervical cancer screening. These longitudinal findings provided data much needed for future research to develop evidence-based intervention programs to enhance cervical cancer screening among rural women in China.