Young people's knowledge of the cervical smear test

A sample of three hundred and forty-eight 16 and 17-year-old students (120 boys and 228 girls) on a range of vocational courses were asked a number of questions about the cervical smear test in October 1980. 10% of the boys and 27% of the girls selected "smear" as a word they would associate with cancer, but only 3.3% of the boys and 9.2% of the girls mentioned the cervical smear test as a preventive measure. Approximately a quarter of the students considered cervical cancer to be usually curable with early treatment, and the majority considered it to be rarely curable with late treatment. 38% of the boys and 64% of the girls had heard of the cervical smear test and the doctor, clinic, family planning clinic and hospital were suggested as places where the smear is available. 9% of the girls said they had had a smear test. These results were used as a baseline for the designing of suitable teaching material.