Experience and acceptability for HPV self-sampling among women in Jiangsu province, China: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

This aim of this study was to investigate women’s knowledge about HPV along with their experience and acceptability of self-sampling in Jiangsu province, China. A total of 862 women aged 25–63 years old from Jiangsu province who purchased an HPV self-sampling test kit were invited to complete a questionnaire designed by the authors. Participants had high acceptability for HPV self-sampling with a mean score of 4.2 (95% [CI], 4.1–4.22) out of 5 points. 27% of participants preferred clinician-sampling, 33% preferred self-sampling, other 40% expressed no preference. Women with good knowledge about HPV and with a good experience with HPV self-sampling were more acceptable for self-sampling (P < 0.05). The biggest concern about HPV self-sampling of the participants includes ‘specimens’ spoilage’, ‘incorrect sampling’, ‘can’t get results in time’, and so on. HPV self-sampling can be used to improve cervical cancer screening coverage and participation rates in China.

IMPACT STATEMENT

• Cancer screening and can be an alternative primary screening for cervical cancer.

• •What the results of this study add? This study adds new findings about Chinese women’s experience and acceptability of HPV self-sampling. We found that most women had high acceptability for HPV self-sampling in Jiangsu province, China, and high knowledge about HPV as well as good

• •What is already known on this subject? HPV self-sampling testing was proven to be useful for improving the uptake rate of cervical experience of self-sampling can improve the acceptability for self-sampling in women.

• •What the implications are of these findings for clinical practice and/or further research? Further research should assess the acceptability of women with less education or who never screened.

Keywords:

• Human papillomavirus
• self-sampling
• cervical cancer
• screening
• acceptability
• Gynecological Oncology
  

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our thanks to the medical personnel who contributed to our study and all the study participants who voluntarily participated in this study for their contribution to the finish of this study. All authors made contributions to this research, Shui-Xiang Qu and Jian-Fen Qin designed this study, Xiao-Yan Chen and Yi-Hua Ni were responsible for designing the questionnaire. Wei-Li Wu and Wei-Chu Zhang conducted expert consultations. All authors participated in the data collection and collation. Shui-Xiang Qu conducted data analysis and drafted the article. All authors gave final approval of the version to be published, and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This study received support from Medical and Health Science and Technology Project of Zhejiang Province (2020PY052).