# Trends and disparities in cervical cancer screening prevalence in Vietnam: Evidence from the 2015 and 2021 WHO STEPS surveys

Source: https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-toan-vietnam-cervical-screening-steps-jcpo-2026/  
OnCo record `paper-toan-vietnam-cervical-screening-steps-jcpo-2026` (Key paper). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

In Viet Nam's national WHO STEPS surveys, the share of women who had ever been screened for cervical cancer fell from 24.86% in 2015 to 16.36% in 2021, with wider gaps by ethnicity, wealth and region.

## Summary

A secondary analysis of the nationally representative 2015 and 2021 Vietnam WHO STEPS surveys, defining screening as a self-reported history of ever having a Pap smear, visual inspection with acetic acid or Lugol's iodine, or an HPV test, with survey-weighted estimates and logistic regression.

Among 4,168 women, 20.47% had ever been screened: 24.86% in 2015 and 16.36% in 2021. Kinh women (adjusted odds ratio 2.56), urban residents (1.27) and women who were or had been married were more likely to have been screened.

## Fields

- Kind: Key paper
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Journal: Journal of Cancer Policy
- Year: 2026
- DOI: 10.1016/j.jcpo.2026.100748
- Authors: Thi Ngoc Toan A, Palmer MR, Phung TL, Nguyen PT
- Findings: Ever screened: 24.86% (2015) and 16.36% (2021), p < 0.001.; Kinh ethnicity: adjusted odds ratio 2.56 (95% CI 1.45 to 4.50); urban residence 1.27 (1.01 to 1.60).; Disparities by ethnicity, wealth and geography widened between the two surveys.
- What it means: Cervical screening reached far fewer women than the 2016 to 2025 national plan aimed for, and the 2026 to 2035 plan moves to HPV testing, including self-sampling, and asks for insurance to pay for screening.
- Caveats: Self-reported screening.; The abstract does not give results by age group.

## Sources

- Journal of Cancer Policy 2026: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcpo.2026.100748
- PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42069248/

## Connected records

- cancers: [Cervical cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/cervical/)
- technologies: [HPV DNA testing and self-sampling](https://onco.cc/technologies/hpv-testing/)
- institutions: [Ministry of Health, Viet Nam](https://onco.cc/institutions/moh-vietnam/)

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