Effect of a community action intervention on cervical cancer screening rates in rural Australian towns: the CART project.
BACKGROUND
The effect of community action on cervical cancer screening rates was explored in 20 rural Australian towns.


METHODS
Town quarterly Pap test counts, from the Australian Health Insurance Commission, were converted to town rates using Census populations. Pap test rates for 12 quarters before and after mobilization were examined.


RESULTS
Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests demonstrated significantly higher per capita Pap test rates pre- to postmobilization for intervention towns compared to matched control towns for women whose last Pap test was more than 2 years ago (P=0.008). Maximum efficiency robust tests examining the equality of mean differences (intervention-control) of per capita rates between pre- and post-mobilization periods also found significant differences for Pap tests where last procedure was between 1 and 2 years ago (R = 13.9, P = 0.039) and near significance for Pap tests where last procedure was less than one year ago (R = 10.6, P = 0.087).


CONCLUSIONS
It appeared that underscreened women were more likely and overscreened women were less likely to have a Pap test in response to the intervention. The results indicate that a community action program can positively impact cervical cancer screening rates.
Hancock
L
L
Hunter Centre for Health Advancement, Wallsend 2287 NSW, Newcastle, Australia. lhancock@doh.health.nsw.gov.au
Sanson-Fisher
R
R
Perkins
J
J
Corkrey
R
R
Burton
R
R
Reid
S
S
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001315:Australia; D003256:Community Participation; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008389:Marketing of Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D008875:Middle Aged; D019035:Rural Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*