Themes and illustrative quotes
| Theme | |
| Attitudes to NCSP | |
| Fear of missing cancer | |
| A woman’s body changes quickly | So obviously, it’s important to try and catch it early and a couple of years can make a huge difference. So, I think it probably would have been better if they left it the way that it was. (P10) But like stretching it out that bit further, it worries me that is something going to happen and by the time they come around to screening again, is it going to be too late for me? (P4) |
| Missing non-HPV cancer | If we miss that 1%, what’s that out of 100? That’s still one person. One person out of every hundred we’re missing, that’s sad. That’s someone’s mother, someone’s daughter. (P12) I would think put some women at risk, that are not exposed to HPV and would get it otherwise. (P2) |
| Women will forget | And then it will get to that 5 years and people will still go, ‘Well I’ll just wait another 6 months.’ (P5) I think there will be too many people that get complacent and I think because of it too many people will get sick. (P12) |
| Personal experiences | Considering that I’ve had smears that have been not… a little bit concerning, I’d be concerned about that. (P8) A friend of mine got cervical cancer when she was 21… If they didn’t catch it early, she’d be dead. (P2) |
| Younger women are at greater risk | |
| Earlier sexual activity | A lot of children are starting to have sex at 13,14. At 25, for some kids that’s over 10 years that kids are sexually active before they have screening. (P3) |
| Vaccine effectiveness | Depends on how good the vaccination is and the stats around how effective that is. Because we know that vaccinations aren’t 100%. (P8) Maybe that’s what contributed to the 25 age testing that a lot of younger women have had the Gardasil vaccine but even then, a lot of parents won’t let their kids have that. (P5) |
| More young people have cancer | And I’ve heard that there has been cases of younger ones getting cervical cancer. Stuff that normally you don’t see til you are older and now coming up in younger women. (P4) I think younger people are at higher risk. (P2) |
| The changes are good | |
| Trust in medicine | I think I’ve got faith in the doctors because there must be a reason as to why they are doing that. (P11) |
| Reduced discomfort | Well I like the idea of not having to go back every 2 years and not be in that uncomfortable position. (P14) |
| Earlier detection of cancer | I guess it starts somewhere doesn’t it. If they pick up one thing, they can prevent it from leading to something else. (P13) |
| Screening beliefs | |
| Personal | |
| To be healthy | Just because I want to be healthy, like I go to the dentist and have a normal check-up every year. This is part of the routine. (P11) |
| To be there for family | It wouldn’t just affect me, it would affect my whole family. I couldn’t be selfish like that, to not get it done for whatever reason. Because, once you’re gone… you’ve left and not destroyed but you’ve upset your whole family by not going to look after yourself when it’s just a simple test. (P4) |
| Hx cancer/abnormal smears | My grandma got really sick with cancer and so it kind of has impacted me to make sure I try and look after myself. (P10) A long time ago I did have an abnormal smear. So, I guess knowing that, not wanting to go through that again making sure I’m keeping on top of that, so it doesn’t happen again. (P13) |
| Practitioner | |
| Feeling comfortable | As long as I felt comfortable with the doctor. Their bedside manner was nice, they were clean, the instruments they used was sterile, they followed all their proper PPE precautions. (P12) |
| Trust in regular GP | I always just go to my GP. (P9) …. because I had been going to him for a long time. (P4) |
| Male practitioner | I just feel more comfortable with a female because I’m female (P11) |
| Potential interventions | |
| Education programme | And that the girls should be learning about it at school in their health and wellness classes as well so that as maturing adults they are aware of what is going on in their own bodies. (P3) Kids these days get information from their friends, if their parents don’t talk to them about it. So, if you are one of those parents that doesn’t, your children are going to take information from their friends that might be incorrect. (P5) |
| General practitioner | The GP would be good. You listen to them. Even if they give you a piece of paper, you go read that. (P6) I do think that it would be a good idea that when you are having a pap smear the doctor talks to you about the relationship between cervical cancer and other issues and stuff (P3) |
| Media campaign | So just put it on my Facebook screen or my Instagram or something like that. So then, y’know that I can click on it and it’s private. (P2) It’s something that should be spoken about more, y’know. And I just think advertising on tv would be a strong starting point (P12) I feel like people need to hear about the stories of people actually having cancer. I think the scare factor is pretty effective for young people. (P8) |
| Improving cost and accessibility | I think anything to do with those tests (cervical screening) should come with a bulk billing visit for women because it is a deterrent for going to your GP. (P5) And if you did like pop up clinics because you know they always have pop up Red Cross Blood Van (P9) |