Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’

Objectives To investigate women’s understanding and attitudes towards the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) and to explore methods to improve screening participation.Design Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted through convenience and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis oc...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jennifer Banks, Clare Heal, Archana Nagendiram, Rachel Bidgood
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: BMJ Publishing Group 2020-03-01
Series:BMJ Open
Online Access:https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e034483.full
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1846140071897464832
author Jennifer Banks
Clare Heal
Archana Nagendiram
Rachel Bidgood
author_facet Jennifer Banks
Clare Heal
Archana Nagendiram
Rachel Bidgood
author_sort Jennifer Banks
collection DOAJ
description Objectives To investigate women’s understanding and attitudes towards the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) and to explore methods to improve screening participation.Design Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted through convenience and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis occurred using the interpretivist framework.Setting A private general practice in North Queensland.Participants Women between the ages of 18 and 74 who attended the general practice were eligible to participate. Fourteen women between 20 and 58 years old were interviewed.Results Participants were concerned that the new NCSP would miss cancer due to longer screening intervals and reliance on primary human papilloma virus (HPV) testing. They believed that young women are at increased risk of cervical cancer, due to perceived HPV vaccine ineffectiveness and parent objection to vaccination. Most participants were not agreeable to self-sampling and preferred their doctor to perform screening. Personal and practitioner beliefs influenced a woman’s screening participation. Personal factors include being healthy for themselves and their family, previous abnormal smears and family history of cancer. Emphasis was placed on feeling ‘comfortable’ with their practitioner which included patient rapport and gender preference. Proposed methods to improve cervical screening included education programmes, advertising campaigns, general practitioner interventions and improving accessibility.Conclusions It is apparent that women are hesitant about the new NCSP. However, when provided with additional information they were more amenable to the changes. This highlights the need to improve awareness of cervical screening and the new NCSP.
format Article
id doaj-art-83a935bd017c48fb8b7d5ec01d24ffc4
institution Kabale University
issn 2044-6055
language English
publishDate 2020-03-01
publisher BMJ Publishing Group
record_format Article
series BMJ Open
spelling doaj-art-83a935bd017c48fb8b7d5ec01d24ffc42024-12-05T23:25:09ZengBMJ Publishing GroupBMJ Open2044-60552020-03-0110310.1136/bmjopen-2019-034483Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’Jennifer Banks0Clare Heal1Archana Nagendiram2Rachel Bidgood34 College of Medicine and Dentristry, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, AustraliaCollege of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, AustraliaSchool of Medicine and Dentistry, James Cook University, Mackay, Queensland, AustraliaCanelands Medical Centre, Mackay, Queensland, AustraliaObjectives To investigate women’s understanding and attitudes towards the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) and to explore methods to improve screening participation.Design Semi-structured face-to-face interviews were conducted through convenience and snowball sampling. Thematic analysis occurred using the interpretivist framework.Setting A private general practice in North Queensland.Participants Women between the ages of 18 and 74 who attended the general practice were eligible to participate. Fourteen women between 20 and 58 years old were interviewed.Results Participants were concerned that the new NCSP would miss cancer due to longer screening intervals and reliance on primary human papilloma virus (HPV) testing. They believed that young women are at increased risk of cervical cancer, due to perceived HPV vaccine ineffectiveness and parent objection to vaccination. Most participants were not agreeable to self-sampling and preferred their doctor to perform screening. Personal and practitioner beliefs influenced a woman’s screening participation. Personal factors include being healthy for themselves and their family, previous abnormal smears and family history of cancer. Emphasis was placed on feeling ‘comfortable’ with their practitioner which included patient rapport and gender preference. Proposed methods to improve cervical screening included education programmes, advertising campaigns, general practitioner interventions and improving accessibility.Conclusions It is apparent that women are hesitant about the new NCSP. However, when provided with additional information they were more amenable to the changes. This highlights the need to improve awareness of cervical screening and the new NCSP.https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e034483.full
spellingShingle Jennifer Banks
Clare Heal
Archana Nagendiram
Rachel Bidgood
Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
BMJ Open
title Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
title_full Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
title_fullStr Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
title_short Knowledge and perspectives of the new National Cervical Screening Program: a qualitative interview study of North Queensland women—‘I could be that one percent’
title_sort knowledge and perspectives of the new national cervical screening program a qualitative interview study of north queensland women i could be that one percent
url https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/10/3/e034483.full
work_keys_str_mv AT jenniferbanks knowledgeandperspectivesofthenewnationalcervicalscreeningprogramaqualitativeinterviewstudyofnorthqueenslandwomenicouldbethatonepercent
AT clareheal knowledgeandperspectivesofthenewnationalcervicalscreeningprogramaqualitativeinterviewstudyofnorthqueenslandwomenicouldbethatonepercent
AT archananagendiram knowledgeandperspectivesofthenewnationalcervicalscreeningprogramaqualitativeinterviewstudyofnorthqueenslandwomenicouldbethatonepercent
AT rachelbidgood knowledgeandperspectivesofthenewnationalcervicalscreeningprogramaqualitativeinterviewstudyofnorthqueenslandwomenicouldbethatonepercent