Acceptability of Human Papilloma Virus Self-Sampling for Cervical Cancer Screening in a Cohort of Patients from Romania (Stage 2)

Abstract

(1) Background: Low patient’s adherence to conventional cervical cancer screening methods determined the need to take into consideration alternative approaches, and vaginal HPV self-sampling is one of them. We aimed to evaluate, using an online survey, the Romanian women’s acceptability of vaginal HPV self-sampling. (2) Methods: A 13-questions online survey was distributed on three Facebook groups, and the results were summarized. (3) Results: Despite of good educational background, 10.8% (n = 60) of the respondents did not know what a Pap smear is, and 33% (n = 183) were not informed about the free national cervical cancer screening program. Multivariate analysis revealed an increased likelihood of vaginal self-sampling acceptance among respondents who did not know about Pap test (OR: 7.80; 95%CI: 1.062–57.431; p = 0.021), national cervical cancer screening program (OR: 1.96; 95%CI: 1.010–3.806; p = 0.02), HPV infection (OR: 7.35; 95%CI: 3.099–17.449; pp = 0.03). Moreover, women who did not previously undergo a cervical cancer screening program were more likely to accept the new screening method (OR: 1.62; 95%CI: 0.878–3.015; p = 0.04). (4) Conclusions: Our results showed high acceptability rates of vaginal HPV self-sampling among participants.

Keywords

• self-sampling
• cervical cancer screening
• acceptability
• HPV detection