Cost effectiveness of cervical cancer screening among Chinese women in North America.

Background: Chinese North American women have high invasive cervical cancer rates and low screening rates. The cost-effectiveness of strategies to improve Pap testing rates for Chinese women living in Seattle, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia was examined.

Objectives: To calculate the costs and cost-effectiveness of implementing two strategies to motivate women to obtain a Pap smear.

Research Design: A three-armed randomized, controlled trial was conducted. Women in each of two interventions (high-intensity outreach and low-intensity mailing intervention) were compared to a group of women who received usual care.

Measures: Costs were captured via a group discussion of costs, accounting records, sampling of staff time logs, and estimation of costs and task times. Effectiveness was measured as the proportion of women in each intervention arm who reported receiving a Pap smear since the trial began. Cost-effectiveness was calculated as the incremental cost of screening each additional woman between an intervention arm and the control arm.

Results: A greater percentage of women who received the outreach intervention had a Pap test than women who received mailed materials or women who were in the usual care arm. The intent-to-treat cost for each additional woman to be screened for a Pap test was $415 in the Outreach arm and $676 for the Direct Mailing arm. The outreach worker intervention, though more expensive overall, was more cost-effective than the mailing intervention.

Conclusions: Outreach intervention is cost-effective for sponsors and should be considered as a strategy to motivate Chinese women living in North America to seek cervical cancer screening.