Factors affecting compliance with PAP smear screening Población objetivo del tamizaje de cáncer cervicouterino en el sistema público de atención chileno y su relación con la cobertura de PAP. Implicancias en políticas de salud y asignación de recursos púb

Abstract

© 2016, Sociedad Medica de Santiago. All rights reserved. Background: Pap smear coverage in Chile has gradually decreased in the last years, from 67% to 59%, making it necessary to determine the causes of this decline. Aim: To analyze the relationship between the characteristics of the cervical cancer screening target population in the public health care system and the percentage of PAP coverage. Material and Methods: This study was carried out in women aged between 25 and 64 years, belonging to a public health care system and registered in any of the eight primary healthcare centers of a Metropolitan Santiago low income community. The analysis considered information from the recruitment database (n = 6,058) and interviewed women database (n = 1,042). Results: In 52% of cases there were difficulties in recruiting women, mainly due to wrong addresses. Among contacted women, 4.1% had a hysterectomy or had cervical cancer and 1.4% were dead. When analyzing the variable “adherence to cervi