The effectiveness of a cervical cancer screening programme for the women of Vanuatu

These results were unable to be compared to the sensitivity and specificity of the Pap smears in this study without the use of confirmation biopsies. However, these results statistics were comparable to VIA and Pap smear sensitivity and specificity resultsfrom other developing countries. This technique demonstrated a simple yet affordable method of detecting cervical abnormalities in a developing country with limited resources. The qualitative survey identified that Bislama (90%) was the most common language spoken and read followed by English (64%) and French (23%). Almost a third of participants were unemployed (31.3%), the remainder being self-employed (30.6%) and employed (38.2%). The majority of the respondents had between 4 and 9 years of schooling (53%). Significantly more (p<0.05) women had 10+ years of schooling in the urban environment (45%) compared to the rural environment (25%). Middle-aged women (41-50yrs) were found to demonstrate greater courage when discussing healthcare issues, especially if they were from the urban environment and had 10+ years of schooling. The reported level of awareness of cancer, CC, and Pap smears was 69.9%, 40.7%, 16.8% respectively. Breast cancer was the most common reported cancer type (76.5%). The level of CC awareness was significantly higher (p<0.05) in urban participants compared to rural participants. There was no significant difference (p<0.05) in the relationship between the level of Pap smear awareness and years of schooling. Only 8.1% of participants had ever experienced a Pap smear. Fewer women in the rural environment had ever had a Pap smear taken (7.3%) compared to women in the urban environment (20.8%). Nurses (55%), doctors (33%), and village health workers (22%) were the three most important sources of information for the survey participants.