Selective uptake of cervical cancer screening
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A STUDY TO INVESTIGATE THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN SELECTIVE UPTAKE OF CERVICAL CANCER SCREENING AND ALL CAUSE MORTALITY
IRAS ID
178910
Contact name
Peter Sasieni
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
QMUL Joint Research Management Office
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, 24 days
Research summary
It has long been thought that women who suffer health problems, difficult living conditions and risky lifestyles are less likely to participate in screening programmes. Reasons for this include physical barriers in attending, less perceived risk of developing disease among others. Selective uptake of screening by health participants has been blamed for difficulties in interpreting the effect of cervical screening on cancer incidence between participants and non-participants. Since the aim of cervical screening is to detect precancerous lesions and avoid progression to cancer less cervical cancer is usually observed among screened women. This in turn results in less deaths among screened women.
Aim: to quantify the selective uptake of cervical screening in England by examining mortality among women who participate in screening compared to those who do not participate.
This is a data linkage study using existing databases.
Inclusion criteria
Cases: a sample of deaths between 1992 and 2012 in England (from Office of National Statistics, ONS) among females born between 1923 and 1972 and age 20-69 in 1992 from a number of pre-specified causes of death.
Cohort: select one woman at random for each case from the cervical screening call/recall (NHAIS) database to have the same year of birth as case women. Note that a “case” can also be in the cohort
Exclusion criteria
Death between 1992 and 2012 in women born before 1923 or after 1972.
Women who have migrated before age 70 or the end of the follow-up.
Required data
To assess whether there is selective uptake of screening in the population it will be necessary to link deaths (identified by ONS) to their screening history on the NHAIS database. The cohort of women and their screening histories will be identified and extracted from the NHAIS database. A pseudonymous extract will be provided to the researchers.REC name
South Central - Berkshire B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SC/0480
Date of REC Opinion
20 Sep 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion