Attendance to cervical cancer screening among Roma and non-Roma women living in North-Western region of Romania

Romania has Europe's highest incidence and mortality rates of cervical cancer. Participation in the national cervical cancer-screening programme is low, especially among minority Roma women. We conducted a cross-sectional study, using a structured questionnaire aiming to quantify reasons for screening attendance among women in North-Western region of Romania. 980 women were enrolled in this study. Data were analysed using logistic regression, estimating odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). This study revealed that Roma women (46%) attended screening less frequently that non-Roma women (63%),; however, ethnicity in itself was not associated with screening attendance. Instead we found that attendance to the cervical cancer screening programme was determined by having ever heard about a screening opportunity (OR 5.90, 95% CI 3.76-9.27) and having three or more sex partners (OR 5.99, 95% CI 1.71-21.04). We concluded that information about the screening programme's existence and its rationale does not reach the women targeted for screening sufficiently and argue that a process of user involvement aiming to build contact, interaction and cooperation between the programme and its potential participants is warranted.