Cervical cancer screening in Denmark

Abstract

Denmark is divided into 15 counties and it is up to regional politicians and the health authority in each county to organise the cervical screening programmes. The National Board of Health issued national guidelines and recommendations for the cervical cancer screening back in 1986, and these guidelines are now, in 1998, almost fully implemented. In this study, a literature review on cervical cancer screening in Denmark, review of local guidelines, personal interviews with pathologists and collection of information about the education of cytotechnologists in Denmark was carried out. In Denmark in 1997 90% of women aged 23–59 years and 46% of women aged 60–74 years were covered by organised screening. A total of 650 000 smears were taken annually. This figure corresponds to screening of all Danish women aged 25–59 years on average, every second year. The national recommendation is screening every third year. Thus, as the incidence of cervical cancer in Denmark is decreasing, we could probably move towards a longer screening interval. However, before the Danish recommendations are changed, more detailed data on the actual performances of screening programmes are warranted.