Barriers to Cervical Cancer Screening in HIV Positive women: A Systematic Review of Recent Studies in the World

Background and Objectives: Cervical cancer is one of the five most common cancers in Iranian women. Considering the impact of HIV on cervical cancer and the low rate of cervical cancer screening in HIV positive women, this study was conducted to review the barriers to cervical cancer screening in HIV positive women. Methods: In this systematic review, data were retrieved from Magiran, SID, Irandoc, Prequest, OVID, ScienceDirect, PubMed, Web of Science and Scupos databases from January 2000 to January 2018. The following keywords and their combination were used: cervical cancer screening, Pap smear, HIV-positive women, and barriers. The NOS (Newcastle-Ottawa Scale) checklist was used to evaluate the quality of the selected articles and the articles that scored more than six were included in the study. Results: From 145 selected articles, 21 were included in the review based on the inclusion criteria. The most common reported screening barriers were the costs of test, lack of awareness, low education level, younger age, lack of information about screening centers, and fear of sampling. Conclusion: Considering the barriers to cervical cancer screening, increasing the level of awareness of the HIV-positive women, preparing free Pap smear services, and providing easier access to health centers for this high risk group could lead to early detection of cervical cancer