Kate’s experience is not unique.
One in five Australian women has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. And research shows those who have experienced sexual abuse, either as adults or children, are less likely to attend regular cervical screening.
The Conversation, March 4, 2020 10.58pm AEDT
Why do so many Asian Americans and Pacific Islander women know so little about HPV? We set out to answer this question by interviewing ethnic groups and conducting surveys.
Our findings suggest their knowledge and attitudes toward HPV prevention are closely tied to health beliefs and cultural or language barriers. What’s more, we discovered preventive health care is not a top priority for immigrant populations. In general, they seek treatment only when already sick. Our studies also suggest many of them are skeptical about participating in research.
We discovered in our study that narrative storytelling – that is, mothers and their children sharing their experiences and having conversations about HPV vaccination – can increase HPV vaccination rates.
From that, we’ve developed what we call a storytelling intervention for young Korean American women using a “peer-paired” approach. Because the storytellers are about the same age as the participants, a meaningful conversation is more likely to occur. The women are less shy about sharing their personal experiences, feelings and fears.
Thorne Harbour Health, September 2019
Cancer Council Victoria, November 2019
As more research reveals concerning health outcomes for lesbian, bisexual and queer (LBQ) identified women, it is encouraging that there is a shift in focus towards improving health for LBQ women from both mainstream and LGBTIQ health organisations. As part of Women’s Health Week (September 2 – 6) we thought we’d take you through one of our campaigns which was created to raise awareness around cervical screening.
The reasons why these groups don’t screen as often as they should include people thinking they don’t need to screen, feeling embarrassed or frightened and fearing homophobia or transphobia. The fact is, all LGBTIQ people with a cervix between the ages of 25 and 74, need cervical screening every five years to reduce their risk of cervical cancer, no matter who they have had as a sexual partner.
Working with Cancer Council Victoria, Thorne Harbour Health created the ‘Public Cervix Announcement’ campaign. This campaign was created to raise awareness around cervical cancer and debunk some of the myths around who should be screened.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, Release Date:
This is the third report from an Australian-first project, combining screening, cancer, death, and HPV vaccination data to demonstrate the effects of screening and HPV vaccination on cervical cancer, precancerous abnormalities and cervical screening behaviour.
Screen-detected cervical cancers were less likely to cause death than those diagnosed in never-screened women, and HPV-vaccinated women were more likely to participate in cervical screening, and less likely to have a high-grade abnormality.
In Australia, 80 per cent of cervical cancers are found in women who are overdue for screening or have never been screened.
“We know there’s an equity issue in our cervical screening program,” said Dr Saville, executive director of the VCS Foundation, a cervical screening not-for-profit.
“Women from lower socio-economic settings, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, and women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds do not screen as often … and are more likely to get cancer.”
In a bid to overcome these barriers, a self-testing process was introduced to Australia’s National Cervical Screening Program in 2017.
RACGP News, 20 Feb 2019
The Lancet Oncology modelling study found 149 of 181 countries could cut rates of the preventable cancer to four per 100,000 women by the end of the century – the threshold for considering it eliminated as a public health problem.
The study finds that combining high uptake of the vaccine with high screening could prevent up to 13.4 million cases of cervical cancer within 50 years, with the most benefit in low and middle income countries.