Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2023

Exploring women’s experiences of receiving their cervical screening test results: A citizen science approach (#272)

Ashleigh R Sharman 1 , Verity Chadwick 2 , Kirsty F Bennett 3 , Samantha Rowbotham 4 , Kirsten J McCaffery 5 , Rachael H Dodd 1 5 6
  1. Faculty of Medicine and Health, The University of Sydney, Camperdown, NSW, Australia
  2. Women and Babies, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. Cancer Communication and Screening Group, University College London, London, England, United Kingdom
  4. Menzies Centre for Health Policy and Economics, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  5. Sydney Health Literacy Lab, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  6. The Daffodil Centre, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Aims

The incidence and mortality of cervical cancer has steadily declined since the introduction of Australia’s National Cervical Screening Program, however changes to the program in 2017 have caused some confusion among participants. The aim of this study was to explore how women receive their cervical screening test results, how they interpret their result, and their understanding of what the result meant.

Methods

Women aged 25-74 who received a cervical screening test after 2017 were recruited via social media and citizen science organisations. Participants answered a short questionnaire on how they received cervical screening test results, their interpretation of these results and levels of distress, whether additional information was sought, and if there were unanswered questions regarding their results. Participants also had the option to upload de-identified results from their most recent test.

Results

The 465 participants reported wide variation in the process of result dissemination; the majority (43.4%) received their results verbally from a GP or practice nurse, and over one third (35.4%, n=118) of participants stated they looked for extra information or spoke to someone about what their cervical screening test results meant. 74 (15.9%) participants stated they had unanswered questions about their test result. This raises key issues including the adoption of new media forms for communicating results, provision of scientific versus lay-person wording of results, and the potential to use existing healthcare portals to record and provide access to information.

Conclusions

Cervical screening test results can be challenging to convey effectively, and may lead women to misunderstand or have misconceptions about their results. Given the variability in how women receive their results, there is a need to address the current standards of practice and consider women’s information needs about their test results.