Barriers to the Cervical Cancer Screening by CPC-28 Questionnaire: A Pilot Study

The aim of this study was to identify and compare barriers to cervical cancer screening (CCS) between women seeking and not seeking CCS by CPC-28 questionnaire ('Creencias, Papanicolaou, Cancer-28' questionnaire - Beliefs about Papanicolaou and Cervical Cancer).

A pilot study was performed in 20 gynecological departments, each department sending data from five healthy women and five untreated women with cervical cancer. The women completed a validated and standardized questionnaire with 28 statements (the CPC-28 questionnaire). The participants were divided into women not seeking CCS (8 healthy women vs 30 women with cervical cancer) and women seeking CCS (54 healthy women vs 43 women with cervical cancer). A four-point Likert scale (item score from 1 to 4) was used to assess responses. A linear transformation was made to calculate the responses. Differences with a p value of < 0.05 were considered statistically significant.

The women not seeking CCS vs those seeking CCS had higher barriers according to Domain 1 of the CPC-28 (median; interquartile range: 33.33; 28.70-40.74 vs 14.82; 7.41-29.63; p<0.001). The risk of not seeking CCS was statistically significant in non-working (OR; 95 % CI: 2.458; 1.127-5.358; p<0.024), non-childbearing women (OR; 95 % CI: 3.302; 1.421-7.671; p<0.006) and women without cervical cancer (OR; 95 % CI: 4.709; 1.960-11.317; p<0.001).

We identified barriers to having a Pap test in both of our groups. The risk of not seeking the CCS was statistically significant in non-working, non-childbearing women and women without cervical cancer.