Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #118441

Hanh La, MHS, Dept. Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe ST, Baltimore, MD 21205, (212) 960-3456, hanhla@gmail.com and Nga Nguyen, MD, Vietnam National Cancer Institute, 43 Quan Su St, Hanoi, Vietnam.

The high sensitivity and acceptability of a self-collected sample for HPV testing suggests its potential use as a screening tool in a low-resource such as Vietnam, where no national screening program exists, Pap test coverage is opportunistic, and socio-cultural barriers prevent women from having a pelvic examination. This study evaluates the acceptability of a novel, self-collected Digene cytyobrush compared to both a Pap test and to a physician-administered cytyobrush.

We enrolled 1230 married women from North Vietnam; each woman underwent a pap smear, a physician and a self-collected cytyobrush sample, and then answered questions based on a Likert scale of 1 to 5 for pain, embarrassment, comfort, and privacy regarding each test. A score of 5 meant the least level of pain or embarrassment, and the highest level of comfort or privacy. For every score, the self-collected sample was highest; the physician-collected was next, and the Pap test was the lowest. An acceptability index summing all 4 scores, for a maximum score of 20, followed the same pattern: 16.63+3.03 (Pap), 16.98+2.88 (doctor), and 17.46 + 2.88 (self). T tests comparing mean of indexes were significant (p<0.01). Bivariate analysis shows that those who preferred the self collection method compared to those who preferred the pap were older, owned their house, and had less education. After adjusting for age, owning a house and lower education remained significant.

Learning Objectives:

• At the end of the session, the APHA participant will be able to describe this population's acceptability and preference of 3 types of cervical cancer testing methods.

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.