To mark Cervical Screening Awareness Week 2025, the NIHR School for Primary Care Research (SPCR) is highlighting research that tackles inequalities in access to cervical screening — a key preventative service that saves thousands of lives each year.
One such project, “Barriers to cervical screenings for under-screened individuals” (SPCR Project 611), led by researchers at the University of Oxford, explores the complex and intersecting reasons why some people are less likely to attend cervical screening appointments. Funded by the SPCR, the study investigates how factors such as ethnicity, deprivation, language, mental health, and sexual orientation can create barriers to screening, particularly among under-screened groups.
Further reading:
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PUBLICATION: Factors associated with cervical screening coverage: a longitudinal analysis of English general practices from 2013 to 2022. Journal of Public Health, Volume 46, Issue 1, March 2024, Pages e43–e50