Center for Native Population Health Disparities

Healthy People 2010 set a goal that 90% of adult women will have received a Pap test within the preceding 3 years.  A recent report predicts that increasing current rates of compliance to this goal could reduce annual cervical cancer incidence by 23%.  However, many barriers to getting a Pap test exist including lack of times, discomfort, poor access to care, fear of embarrassment or pain and fear of doctors.

These observations suggest that participation in screening programs might increase if an alternative private, self-administered method for cervical cancer screening were available. One such option is self-collecting vaginal samples for HPV testing.  If samples for HPV screening could be self-collected at home with clinical follow up, the need for in clinic screening could be eliminated for a majority of women.  Studies have shown that self-collected samples are as sensitive as clinician-collected samples for detecting HPV and that women find self-collecting samples for HPV testing to be acceptable. This study will be conducted to determine the feasibility and acceptability related to self HPV DNA testing in AI/AN populations living in rural communities