Does Patient Health and Hysterectomy Status Influence Cervical Cancer Screening in Older Women?

BACKGROUND: Decisions to screen older patients for cancer are complicated by the fact that aging popula-tions are heterogeneous with respect to life expectancy. OBJECTIVE: To examine national trends in the associ-ation between cervical cancer screening and age, health and hysterectomy status. DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS: Cross-sectional data from the 1993, 1998, 2000, and 2005 National Health Interview Surveys (NHIS) were used to examine trends in screening for women age 35–64 and 65+ years of age. We investigated whether health is associated with Pap testing among older women using the 2005 NHIS (N= 3,073). We excluded women with a history of cervical cancer or who had their last Pap because of a problem. MEASUREMENTS: The dependent variable was havin