The impact of five-year Chinese rural area cervical cancer screening program on screening rate

Abstract

Objective: To assess the impact of Chinese Cervical Cancer Screening Program for Rural Area (NACCSPRA) on population-based screening rates. Methods: The subjects were selected from 2013-2014 Chinese Chronic Diseases and Risk Factors Surveillance (CDRFS2013), which adopting multi-stage stratified cluster sampling from 31 provinces. A total of 169 632 participants aged 18 years and older in 297 surveillance points were interviewed, of whom 65 476 women aged 35-64 years were included in the analysis. The surveillance points in CDRFS 2013 were divided into the screening areas and the control areas by matching points in CDRFS2014 with counties in NACCSPRA. The difference in socioeconomic status between areas was compared. The screening rates and 95% confidence interval (95%CI) were estimated by Tylar series variance method. The Propensity Score was evaluated for individuals by multivariate logistic regression and the greedy matching method based on propensity score value was used to conduct 1∶1 matching sample for the screening areas and the control areas. After matching, multivariate conditional logistic regression model was fitted to assess the impact of national cervical cancer screening intervention on the likelihood of undergoing cervical cancer screening at population level. Results: Among 65 476 subjects, 48.6% (n=31 794) was in the screening areas. Before matching, in the rural area the screening rate in the screening areas (24.0% (4 763/19 838), 95%CI: 21.8%-26.3%) was higher than that in the control areas (15.6% (2 331/14 942), 95%CI: 13.4%-17.8%); whereas in the urban area the screening rate in the screening areas (28.5% (3 413/11 956), 95%CI: 26.1%-31.0%) was similar to that in the control areas (26.3% (4 923/18 740), 95%CI: 24.1%-28.4%). After matching, in rural area the screening rate in the screening areas (23.2% (3 454/14 875), 95% CI: 20.9%-25.5%) was higher than that in the control areas (15.6% (2 315/14 875), 95% CI: 13.3%-17.8%); in urban area the screening rate in the screening areas (28.7% (3 202/11 146), 95% CI: 26.2%-31.2%) was higher than that in the control areas (23.1% (2 571/11 146), 95%CI: 20.9%-25.3%). Multivariate conditional logistic regression model showed that the cervical cancer screening rates in intervention areas significantly increased among women aged 35-64 years both in urban areas (OR=1.44, 95%CI: 1.34-1.54) and rural areas (OR=1.78, 95%CI: 1.67-1.90) as compared with those in control areas. Conclusion: The implementation of Chinese cervical cancer screening program during the five years substantially increased the population-based screening rates both in urban and rural areas.