Introduction

Singapore’s national cervical cancer screening programme started in 2004 with conventional Pap smear as its screening modality and garnered approximately 30,000 screens per year. In May 2019, the programme adopted human papillomavirus (HPV) primary screening for women 30 years and older. Alongside the change in modality, to improve uptake of cervical cancer screening, HPB conducted perception studies to put the word on HPV screening and to encourage women to go for cervical cancer screening. This presentation focuses on the findings and efforts undertaken as a result of the perception studies.

Methods

Focus group discussions (FGD) were conducted among 74 women between 21 and 70 years old in January 2019. The exclusion criteria were women who have had cervical cancer and/or a full hysterectomy. They were divided into eight groups under three categories: young (21 to 29 years old), mid-age (30 to 49 years old) and older (50 years and above). Questions in the FGD included perception of cervical cancer, cervical cancer screening and HPV-DNA test.

Results

There was a high awareness of cervical cancer as a female health issue. However, their understanding cervical cancer and its screening were limited and perceptions were mostly inaccurate across all age groups. Misconceptions such as bad hygiene as a cause for cervical cancer were particularly pertinent amongst the older age groups.

While aware of Pap smear, most women did not know what they were screened for. They cited following-up with a gynaecologist after pregnancy as a reason for undergoing Pap smear.

After being informed about the HPV-DNA test, most women chose HPV-DNA test over Pap smear.

Conclusions

The campaign incorporated the findings and focused on raising awareness of HPV, benefits and cost of a HPV-DNA test. Interim findings showed 2.5% increase in cervical cancer screens during the campaign’s first month.