Do your cervix a service: addressing barriers to cervical cancer screening uptake with HPV self-sampling
Cervical cancer is highly prevalent both in Ireland and worldwide, yet has become increasingly manageable with the implementation of human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes and regular Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening. However, not all eligible individuals are able to participate in regular cervical cancer screening. Barriers to participation include access to healthcare services, lack of personal privacy with the method, and sociocultural reasons. A major barrier in the context of Ireland is the 2018 CervicalCheck scandal, which decreased public trust in the national screening programme. HPV self-sampling, in which individuals collect their own sample for testing, has been recommended by the World Health Organisation as a scale-up strategy to address inequity in access to cervical cancer screening. The current available evidence for HPV self-sampling, as well as the feasibility of this intervention in Ireland, is discussed herein
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The original article is available at http://www.rcsismj.com/ Part of the RCSIsmj collection: https://doi.org/10.25419/rcsi.c.6801954.v1Published Citation
Mack N. Do your cervix a service: addressing barriers to cervical cancer screening uptake with HPV self-sampling. RCSIsmj. 2023;16(1):39-42Publication Date
2023Department/Unit
- Undergraduate Research
Publisher
RCSI University of Medicine and Health SciencesVersion
- Published Version (Version of Record)