Audit of cervical cancer screening and colposcopy attendance in rural South Africa.

Women in developing countries generally lack access to cervical cancer preventive services. An audit was performed in rural South Africa to test the hypothesis that women do not follow (pre-)cancerous cervical disease treatment sufficiently, to understand the possible reasons for this non-attendance behavior, and to evaluate other published diagnostic and treatment initiatives. Based on Pap smear and colposcopy attendance data, including age, HIV status, month of attendance, and cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) staging, relatively few patients (54% of 928 patients) visited a colposcopy clinic following an abnormal Pap smear. Although these co-factors do not explain this high non-attendance rate, HIV status was an important co-factor; percentage-wise, HIV positivity correlated with a higher attendance rate. Screening methods that use mobile teams to successfully deliver cost-effective on-the-spot treatment warrant further attention.