Principal applicant and corresponding author:

Cervical cancer is an important cause of morbidity and mortality among women worldwide.1 Compared to other developed countries, Hong Kong has a moderately high mortality rate for cervical cancer,2 and is cited as a ‘high risk’ area for this by the International Agency for Cancer Research.3 Despite good evidence that effective prevention can be provided by screening,4 not all women attend and Hong Kong has no organised screening programme. There has been much research investigating reasons for screening attendance and non-attendance in different communities, and the factors associated with uptake. However, few have been done in Chinese populations. Although many industrialised countries have adopted organised screening programmes, this is by no means universal. Reported uptake of screening in regions with no organised programme varies widely and there are few studies formally comparing ad-hoc with organised programmes. Aims and objectives This study aimed to determine the coverage and frequency of cervica