title: [Review of the program of early detection of cervical cancer in women in Primorsko-Goranska County in 2009].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cervical cancer is the most common cancer in women, the second most frequent malignancy in women and the second most common cause of death in women suffering from cancer worldwide. In 2009, in the Primorje-Goranska County 52 (4.1%) women were hospitalized for the treatment of cervical cancer.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this paper is to show the methodology and results of the County program in 2009.
  
  
  METHODS
  The County Institute of Public Health (IPH) has been conducting this screening program systematically since 2006. In 2009, screening was conducted at six gynecologic practices with coverage of 6000 women. Prior to Program performance, the IPH provide the gynecologists with all necessary logistics (brushes for cytobrush technique, Pap tests, addressed envelopes, invitation letters and patient questionnaires). The gynecologists include women by random choice, each gynecologist around 1000 women of the specified age group. They send invitations to women with specified date and time of testing. Swabs are referred to the Cytology Laboratory, Rijeka University Hospital Center in Rijeka. For the purpose of this Program, IPH has designed a questionnaire for women, containing 13 questions. Patients give the questionnaires back to the gynecologists, who send them to the IPH for statistical analysis. Data collected from the questionnaires and Pap test findings are entered in a specially designed computer program. During Program implementation, the IPH, gynecologists and cytologists work together to improve the quality of testing. For the purpose of education of women about sexual health and to improving the response rate, IPH has created and distributed 10,000 educational brochures entitled Sexual health of women, the knowledge is power.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In 2009, the response rate in the Program was 41.9% (n=2514). Cytologic analysis of Pap tests yielded 94.5% of negative results and 5.1% of abnormal findings. Adequacy of 99.6% of Pap smears was satisfactory, while 0.4% of samples were of poor quality that could not be analyzed. Results showed 66.7% of women to undergo gynecologic examination once a year, whereas 17.9% of women had not been for gynecologic examination for more than 3 years. The majority (90.7%) of women that participated in the Program were visiting the chosen gynecologist at primary health care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Throughout the Program implementation, the leading problem continued to be low turnout of gynecologists for inclusion in the Program and poor turnout of invited women. The cause of this problem lies in the insufficient number of gynecologic teams and too many women in care of one gynecologist. This problem points to the need of restructuring of primary health care for women with emphasis on the number of health professionals. Results of the analysis of two questions in the questionnaire indicated inadequate knowledge of women about the importance of regular gynecologic control. When planning screening program in the coming years, attention should be focused on the motivation of women of younger age groups as well as those that are irregularly controlled.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Organized screening can reduce the risk and mortality of cervical cancer. It is also known that with a relatively small investment but with better health care organization, the response of women can increase. Taking into account the threat posed by cervical cancer for women's health and social burden, the need of prevention strategies, primarily screening tests, is clear as a means for early detection of the problem and timely removal of abnormal cells.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Public Health of Primorje-Goranska County, Rijeka, Croatia. helena@zzjzpgz.hr
authors.forename: Helena
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Glibotić Kresina
authors.forename: Suzana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Janković
authors.forename: Sandro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kresina
authors.forename: Svjetlana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gasparović Babić
authors.forename: Henrietta
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Bencević Striehl
authors.forename: Nevenka
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Vlah
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D017523:Croatia / Q000453:epidemiology; D042241:Early Diagnosis; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008403:Mass Screening / Q000458:organization & administration; D008875:Middle Aged; D002583:Uterine Cervical Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult