The Effect of Self-Sampling or Clinician-Based Sampling on Anxiety in Cervical Cancer Screening Among Women: A...

This study aimed to determine the effect of self-sampling or clinician-based sampling on anxiety in cervical cancer screening among women.

This study was conducted between October 2022 and December 2023 in a family health centre among women aged 30-65 years who had not undergone cervical cancer screening in the last 5 years, were sexually active, and could read and write Turkish. Participants (N = 110) were randomly divided into 2 groups (1:1): the experimental group (n = 55) and control group (n = 55). Women in the experimental group were trained before the procedure and were allowed to take samples from the vaginal area on their own. The women in control group were sampled from cervical region by the clinician. Both groups were pretested before the procedure using the "descriptive information form" and "state anxiety inventory" to measure anxiety. After the sampling procedure, a post-test was administered to the experimental and control groups using the state anxiety inventory. Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows 24.0 was used for the analysis and P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results showed that the descriptive characteristics of the groups were distributed homogeneously. In the pretest, there was no significant difference between groups in terms of anxiety levels (P > 0.05), whereas in the post-test, it was observed that anxiety levels of women in experimental group were significantly lower than those in the control group (P < 0.05).

This study observed that women's self-sampling during cervical cancer screening reduced their anxiety level.