Cervical Cancer Screening Lower in Rural Than Urban Health Centers

MONDAY, March 25, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Up-to-date cervical cancer screening is lower in rural than urban community health centers (CHCs), with the differences mainly due to CHC-level characteristics, according to a study published online March 25 in Cancer.

Hyunjung Lee, Ph.D., from the American Cancer Society in Atlanta, and colleagues examined rural-urban differences in cervical cancer screening in CHCs and whether these differences changed during the COVID-19 pandemic using eight-year pooled Uniform Data System (2014 to 2021) data.

The researchers found that up-to-date cervical cancer screening was lower in rural than urban CHCs (38.2 versus 43.0 percent during 2014 to 2019); during the pandemic, this difference increased (43.5 versus 49.0 percent). Differences in CHC-level proportions of patients with limited English proficiency (55.9 percent) or income below the poverty level (12.3 percent) and women aged 21 to 64 years (9.8 percent), catchment area-level unemployment (3.4 percent), and primary care physician density (3.2 percent) mostly explained the rural-urban difference in screening in 2014 to 2019. The differences between rural-urban CHCs were counterbalanced by Medicaid (−48.5 percent) or no insurance (−19.6 percent). In 2020 to 2021, the contribution of these factors to rural-urban differences in cervical cancer screening generally increased.

“Tailored interventions, such as providing technical assistance and resources and language services, are needed to increase cancer screening in rural and urban CHCs, particularly cervical cancer screening in rural CHCs,” the authors write.

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