Cervical cancer screening integrated in routine clinical care of women with HIV

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate if integrated cervical cancer screening (CCS) for women with HIV (WWH) in routine HIV care resulted in increased adherence to screening, and to describe the prevalence of human papillomavirus (HPV)-specific genotypes and the incidence of cellular abnormalities.

Design: Cohort study.

Methods: WWH who accepted the offer of combined CCS and HIV care (group 1), WWH who declined the offer (group 2), and WWH not offered CCS within HIV care (group 3) between 2013 and 2019 were included. Data was collected from The Danish HIV Cohort Study and The Danish Pathology Data Bank. Adherence to the CCS program was defined as fulfilled if WWH were screened annually.

Results: A total of 804 WWH were included. WWH who accepted CCS within HIV care (group 1; n = 218) had significantly higher adherence to screening in all study years 22-99% compared with the WWH who declined CCS (group 2; n = 232) 10-16% and WWH who were not invited for CCS (group 3; n = 354) 11-25%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of HPV-specific genotypes and incidence of cellular abnormalities among the three groups.

Conclusion: Integrating CCS for WWH in routine HIV care resulted in higher adherence to the CCS guidelines. Combined services thereby represent an opportunity to engage WWH in HIV care into preventive services.