Acceptance evaluation of urine self-sampling, vaginal self-sampling and physician sampling in cervical cancer screening

Abstract

Objective: To compare the acceptance of urine self-sampling, vaginal self-sampling and physician sampling in cervical cancer screening. Methods: Questionnaire surveys were conducted in women attending cervical cancer screening in Xiangyuan County and Yangcheng County in Shanxi Province from July to November 2015 and from October to December 2018. Both surveys included the following three parts: feelings and acceptance of women in urine self-sampling, vaginal self-sampling and physician sampling, and the ease evaluation of two self-samplings. Results: There were 3 485 questionnaires were collected finally. The proportions of women felt embarrassed in urine self-sampling, vaginal self-sampling and physician sampling were 2.3% (81/3 472), 7.1% (247/3 472) and 8.6% (299/3 472), and 1.3% (46/3 472), 9.7%(3 37/3 472) and 14.9% (518/3 472) of women felt uncomfortable, and 1.0% (35/3 469), 8.5% (295/3 469) and 15.3% (531/3 469) felt pain, and 98.3% (3 334/3 393), 96.3% (3 267/3 393) and 99.0% (3 360/3 393) thought that the sampling were conducted properly (P<0.05). Based on the feeling during sample collection, 61.2% (1 876/3 064), 39.1% (1 199/3 064) and 66.5% (2 037/3 064) women were willing to use the corresponded sampling methods in cervical cancer screening, respectively (P<0.05). If the accuracy was the same, there were 31.8% (1 109/3 485) women preferred self-sampling and 68.2% (2 376/3 485) preferred physician sampling for cervical cancer screening. Meanwhile, 23.5% (820/3 482) preferred vaginal self-sampling in comparison with 76.5% (2 662/3 482) for urine self-sampling in cervical cancer screening. 86.5% (3 007/3 478) of the women thought urine self-sampling was very easy, comparing 40.9% (1 423/3 478) for vaginal self-sampling. Conclusions: The bad feeling of women during urine self-sampling is less common and less serious than those during physician sampling and vaginal self-sampling, and the acceptance for physician sampling is highest, following by urine self-sampling and vaginal self-sampling. Urine self-sampling is much easier than vaginal self-sampling.