2005 to 2023 Saw More U.S. Women Never Screened for Cervical Cancer

TUESDAY, Sept. 1, 2026 (HealthDay News) — From 2005 to 2023, there was an increase in the proportion of U.S. women never screened for cervical cancer, according to a study published online Aug. 27 in JAMA Network Open.

Kalyani Sonawane, Ph.D., from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and colleagues examined trends in the prevalence of never having been screened for cervical cancer. Data were analyzed from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) cycles 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2019, 2021, and 2023, which included a cervical cancer screening questionnaire.

The final analytic sample included cervical cancer screening-eligible women aged 21 to 29 years and 30 to 65 years (23,502 and 82,760 women, respectively) from nine NHIS cycles. Among the group aged 21 to 29 years, the human papillomavirus vaccination rate varied from 5.7 percent in 2008 to 54.0 percent in 2019. The researchers found that the proportion of women never screened for cervical cancer increased from 12.5 to 31.9 percent from 2005 to 2023 among women aged 21 to 29 years (average annual percentage change [AAPC], 5.2 percent), with a pronounced increase from 2010 to 2023 (APC, 7.9 percent). The proportion increased from 5.3 to 14.8 percent among women aged 30 to 65 years (AAPC, 6.8 percent). Regional- and distant-stage cervical cancer incidence increased significantly by more than 2 percent per year after 2017 among women aged 30 to 64 years.

“The findings underscore a growing gap in cervical cancer prevention among young women and during midlife and highlight the need for targeted strategies to address structural barriers and improve screening uptake,” the authors write.

One author received fees from Value Analytics Lab.

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