Preventive health screening use for cervical cancer among women with physical disabilities

Our study used structured questionnaire to understand the cervical cancer screening and to examine the affecting factors in women with physical disabilities, to define the reproductive health care for this group of people. We recruited 521 women with physical disabilities whose aged more than 15 years and they were officially registered as having physical disabilities in this study. Those people with physical disabilities include following: upper and low limb, spinal cord injury and other nervous system impairments. Results found that there were 71.5% subjects had ever used the Pap smear tests in their life time and mean age of the first screening was 39.21±10.16 years (range=20-85 years). About 41% of subjects expressed that they had accepted the screening within 1 year and 27.1% reported they used the Pap smear screening regularly. We also found women with physical disabilities have higher use of Pap smear tests than does the general population in Taiwan (74% vs. 64% in aged≧30 years). Logistic regression model for the use of Pap smear test indicated that those married women (OR = 12.06, 95% CI = 6.85–21.22), with mild level of disability (OR = 2.10, 95% CI = 1.05–4.21) and high cognitive level toward Pap smear information were factors to affect the use of Pap smear in the study participants. We suggest the further study should conduct to examine the quality perception and follow-up service of Pap smear test for women with physical disabilities, to ensure the health care right for this group of women.