Perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening and motivators for at-home human papillomavirus self-sampling during the covid-19 pandemic: results from a telephone survey

Parker, Susan L.; Deshmukh, Ashish A.; Chen, Baojiang; Lairson, David R.; Daheri, Maria; Vernon, Sally W.; Montealegre, Jane R.

Perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening and motivators for at-home human papillomavirus self-sampling during the covid-19 pandemic: results from a telephone survey

Files

nihpp-2022.11.20.22282562v1.pdf (353.93 KB)

Authors

Parker, Susan L.

Deshmukh, Ashish A.

Chen, Baojiang

Lairson, David R.

Daheri, Maria

Vernon, Sally W.

Montealegre, Jane R.

Issue Date

2022-11-22

Type

Article

Language

en_US

Keywords

Perceived Barriers , Cervical Cancer Screening , Human Papillomavirus Self-Sampling , COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Home-based self-sample human papillomavirus (HPV) testing may be an alternative for women who do not attend clinic-based cervical cancer screening. We assessed barriers to care and motivators to use at-home HPV self-sampling kits during the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a randomized controlled trial evaluating kit effectiveness. Participants were women, aged 30–65 years and underscreened for cervical cancer in a safety-net healthcare system. We conducted telephone surveys in English/Spanish among a subgroup of trial participants, assessed differences between groups and determined statistical significance at p<0.05. Over half of 233 survey participants reported clinic-based screening (Pap) is uncomfortable (67.8%), embarrassing (52.4%), and discomfort seeing male providers (63.1%). The latter two factors were significantly more prevalent among Spanish versus English speakers (66.4% vs 30% and 69.9 vs 52.2%, respectively, p<0.01). Most women who completed the kit found Pap more embarrassing (69.3%), stressful (55.6%) and less convenient (55.6%) than the kit. The first factor was more prevalent among Spanish versus English speakers (79.6% vs 53.38%, p<0.05). The COVID-19 pandemic influenced most (59.5%) to participate in the trial due to fear of COVID, difficulty making appointments and ease of using kits. HPV self-sampling kits may reduce barriers among underscreened women in a safety-net system.

Citation

Parker, S. L., Deshmukh, A. A., Chen, B., Lairson, D. R., Daheri, M., Vernon, S. W., & Montealegre, J. R. (2022). Perceived barriers to cervical cancer screening and motivators for at-home human papillomavirus self-sampling during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from a telephone survey. medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences, 2022.11.20.22282562. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.20.22282562

Publisher

MedRxiv : The Preprint Server for Health Sciences