Study finds 2 out of 5 women in Ontario missing Pap tests

August 06, 2010

By Patricia Nicholson

New research reveals that 39 per cent of eligible women in Ontario may not be getting Pap tests. Cervical cancer screening rates were particularly low among immigrant women, older women and low-income women.

Cervical cancer screening using Pap tests helps identify cervical cancer and pre-cancerous lesions at an early stage, enabling faster and more effective treatment. Its widespread use has cut mortality rates for cervical cancer by more than half, and drastically reduced its incidence.

Researchers at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Studies (ICES) and the University of Toronto studied Ontario medical records of 2,273,995 women between the ages of 25 and 69 who were eligible for Pap testing. In the three-year period studied, only 61 per cent of women had appropriate cervical cancer screening.

Screening rates were particularly low among women who were over age 50, women who lived in low-income areas, and women who had registered for health care in Ontario within the previous 10 years (indicating that they had recently immigrated to Canada).

The screening rate among women with all three of these characteristics was less than half of the rate among women with none of the risk factors (31 per cent compared to 71 per cent).

The study results suggest that efforts to increase participation in cervical cancer screening in urban areas should focus on recent immigrants, older women and women who live in low-income areas.

The study was published in the July 2010 issue of the journal Medical Care.