Cervical cancer screening in Denmark

Denmark is divided into 15 counties and it is up to regional politicians an d the health authority in each county to organise the cervical screening pr ogrammes. The National Board of Health issued national guidelines and recom mendations for the cervical cancer screening back in 1986, and these guidel ines are now, in 1998, almost fully implemented. In this study, a literatur e review on cervical cancer screening in Denmark, review of local guideline s, personal interviews with pathologists and collection of information abou t the education of cytotechnologists in Denmark was carried out. In Denmark in 1997 90% of women aged 23 59 years and 46% of women aged 60-74 years we re covered by organised screening. A total of 650 000 smears were taken ann ually. This figure corresponds to screening of all Danish women aged 25-59 years on average, every second year. The national recommendation is screeni ng every third year. Thus, as the incidence of cervical cancer in Denmark i s decreasing, we could probably move towards a longer screening interval. H owever, before the Danish recommendations are changed, more detailed data o n the actual performances of screening programmes are warranted. (C) 2000 E lsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.