Despite the incidence and mortality worldwide has declined, cervical cancer remains a leading public health problem in Thailand. One of the main reasons not to go to participate in screening program in Thai women is embarrassment. This study evaluated the agreement of vaginal self sampling and physician-collected HPV test and Thai women’s acceptability.
Participants were 250 women age 30-70 years who attended a colposcopy clinic in Chulabhorn hospital, Bangkok, Thailand. Vaginal self specimens were obtained by brush and the women were examined by physician to collect the specimens. All specimens were tested for High risk HPV with the Cobas 4800 HPV test. The acceptability of self-sampling HPV was assessed.
HR HPV was detected in 41.6% of self- and 35.6% of physician-collected samples. Overall, there was 87.6% agreement between self- and physician-collected specimens. The complete concordance was detected in 87.6%, partial concordance in 1.2% and discordance in 11.2%. Over 90% of women satisfied and reported comfortable feeling with self-sampling method.
Self-sampling showed favorable agreement with physician-collected and also high acceptability in Thai women. This method can be used to increase the coverage of cervical screening in Thailand.