Cervical cancer screening integrated in routine clinical care of women living with HIV.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate if integrated cervical cancer screening (CCS) for women living with HIV (WLWH) in routine HIV care resulted in increased adherence to screening, and to describe the prevalence of Human Papillomavirus (HPV)-specific genotypes and the incidence of cellular abnormalities.

DESIGN: Cohort study.

METHODS: WLWH who accepted the offer of combined CCS and HIV care (Group 1), WLWH who declined the offer (Group 2), and WLWH not offered CCS within HIV care (Group 3) between 2013-2019 were included. Data was collected from The Danish HIV Cohort Study and The Danish Pathology Data Bank. Adherence to the CCS program was defined as fulfilled if WLWH were screened annually.

RESULTS: A total of 804 WLWH were included. WLWH who accepted CCS within HIV care (group 1; n = 218) had significantly higher adherence to screening in all study years 22-99% compared to the WLWH who declined CCS (group 2; n = 232) 10-16% and WLWH who were not invited for CCS (group 3; n = 354) 11-25%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of HPV-specific genotypes and incidence of cellular abnormalities among the three groups.

CONCLUSION: Integrating CCS for WLWH in routine HIV care resulted in higher adherence to the CCS guidelines. Combined services thereby represent an opportunity to engage WLWH in HIV care into preventive services.