Cervix cancer screening among Greek and immigrant women: the experience of a Greek District Hospital.
OBJECTIVE
To explore whether there are differences in Papanicolaou (Pap) smear screening between native and immigrant women that attended our outpatient clinic.


METHODS
In this retrospective study, from January 2002 until December 2003 we examined age, nationality, marital status, economic status (self-reported family income per year) and previous Pap test screening frequency; 3,316 women were included in the study.


RESULTS
The average age was 41.95 years. The majority of the women who had had a Pap test (58.4%) were Greeks and 41.6% immigrants. Regarding marital status a percentage of 61.2% were married, 13.7% were single and 24.9% were divorced. Regarding economic status 71.0% of the women had a low-income, 25.1% a middle-income and 3.8% a high-income. Of the women 24.99% had never had a Pap test in their lives.


CONCLUSIONS
The possibility of having easy access to a clinic and to routine health care has a critical influence on the cancer screening habits of immigrant women. Opportunistic Pap smear screening as part of a pregnancy or family-planning checkup in local clinics is an acceptable strategy for poor immigrant women.
Paraskevopoulou
E
E
Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Tzaneio Hospital, Piraeus, Greece.
Economou
A
A
Panagopoulos
P
P
Zikopoulos
M
M
Petrakos
G
G
Koutras
I
I
D000328:Adult; D004641:Emigration and Immigration / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D006801:Humans; D017533:Marital Status / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008403:Mass Screening; D010044:Outpatient Clinics, Hospital; D065006:Papanicolaou Test; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012923:Social Class; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000517:prevention & control*; D014626:Vaginal Smears / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*