Cervical Cancer Screening in the Real World: Are We Getting the Timing Right?

After decades of recommending annual Pap smears for cervical cancer screening, sequential guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (2009, 2012, and 2016) advised that screening intervals be extended for average-risk women. To determine if screening practices changed after publication of the 2009 guidelines (screen beginning at age 21, every 2 years until age 30, and every 3 years thereafter), investigators analyzed a Pennsylvania claims database of 29,650 Medicaid-enrolled women (age range, 18–64) who had at least one Pap test between 2007 and 2013.

Among 17,360 women aged <30, overscreening (initiated too young, repeated too early) increased from 6% to 67% before and after 2009, and underscreening (not initiat…