Abstract
BackgroundThe World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for the elimination of cervical cancer (CC) as a public health issue. To achieve elimination, efforts must be aligned and accelerated. Women living with HIV (WLWH) have excess risk for developing, and dying from, CC over the general population. Estimates of cervical cancer screening programme coverage in Eastern European countries that have experienced HIV epidemics since the early 2000’s are scarce.MethodThis population-based retrospective study uses a healthcare administrative database and follows cohorts of all WLWH in a ratio of 1:3 randomly matched (age, region) HIV negative women from 2009 to 2018. Annual and longitudinal (over the whole study period) coverage for cervical cancer screening (opportunistic, organised, HIV specific) and adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for longitudinal screening coverage predictors were estimated from 2009 to 2018.ResultsAmong WLWH and HIV-negative women, the mean annual coverage with opportunistic screening was 61.45 and 65.59%; and organised screening was 20.4 and 28.7%, respectively (both: p < 0.00001). 19.01% (95% CI 18.05–19.97) HIV-negative and 13.9% (95% CI 12.35–15.45) WLWH were longitudinally covered with organised cervical cancer screening. Among WLWH, the mean annual HIV-specific cervical cancer screening coverage was 49.4, and 24.3% were longitudinally covered. Longitudinal coverage with HIV-specific cervical cancer screening was inversely associated with age, hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection (AOR 0.754, 95% CI 0.619, 0.916), not having insurance (AOR 0.331, 95% CI 0.264, 0.412), drug abuse (AOR 0.459, 95% CI 0.336, 0.618) and higher among those retained in HIV care (AOR 1.972, 95% CI 1.615, 2.410). Among HIV-negative women, longitudinal coverage with organised cervical cancer screening was inversely associated with residence in the region and higher among older women.ConclusionsOur results highlight unacceptably low coverage of cervical cancer screening of WLWH in Estonia. There is need for dedicated cervical cancer screening efforts for WLWH considering the high cancer risk and rate in the study population.
Highlights
The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for the elimination of cervical cancer (CC) as a public health issue
Among Women living with HIV (WLWH) and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-negative women, the mean annual coverage with opportunistic screening was 61.45 and 65.59%; and organised screening was 20.4 and 28.7%, respectively. 19.01% HIV-negative and 13.9% WLWH were longitudinally covered with organised cervical cancer screening
Longitudinal coverage with HIV-specific cervical cancer screening was inversely associated with age, hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infection (AOR 0.754, 95% CI 0.619, 0.916), not having insurance (AOR 0.331, 95% CI 0.264, 0.412), drug abuse (AOR 0.459, 95% CI 0.336, 0.618) and higher among those retained in HIV care (AOR 1.972, 95% CI 1.615, 2.410)
Summary
The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls for the elimination of cervical cancer (CC) as a public health issue. Women living with HIV (WLWH) have excess risk for developing, and dying from, CC over the general population. Estimates of cervical cancer screening programme coverage in Eastern European countries that have experienced HIV epidemics since the early 2000’s are scarce. CC has been the fourth most common cancer in women [1] and the leading cause of cancer-related deaths among women in many countries. As such, this disease clearly illustrates the impact of inequality upon women’s health. The acquisition and persistence of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection has increased among women living with HIV (WLWH), as well as the increased risk of invasive CC [2]. International guidelines recommend more frequent CC screening among WLWH [4]
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