Project conducted in Hirakata to improve cervical cancer screening rates in 20-year-old Japanese: Influencing parents to recommend that their daughters undergo cervical cancer screening

Barriers to undergoing cervical cancer screening among health sciences university students in Japan: A cross-sectional study

In most developed countries, cervical cancer screening and human papillomavirus vaccination have reduced cervical cancer incidence. However, the incidence has been increasing in Japan, possibly because of the low screening rate. Although cervical cancer incidence has increased in people in their 20s, the screening rate among 20-24-year-olds in Japan is only 10.2%, meaning that cervical cancer screening rates should be increased among young Japanese women. We conducted a questionnaire survey among students at health sciences universities to determine their knowledge of cervical cancer, screening rates, and barriers to screening. Students taking specialized medical courses were highly knowledgeable; recognition of the facts that "cervical cancer can be prevented through screening" and that "the risk of cervical cancer increases in one's 20s" was significantly high among those who underwent screening. On the other hand, only 7.5% of students used the free coupons provided for screening. Knowledge of cervical cancer improves screening rates. Therefore, educational programs to raise awareness of the importance of cervical cancer screening among non-medical and health sciences university students and young women in general are required.

Challenge to improve Japan's deplorable HPV vaccination rate by local government actions

AIM

In Japan, in 2013, following reports of several alleged adverse reactions in young girls following vaccination, the previously successful national human papillomavirus infection (HPV) vaccination program collapsed rapidly. In the 8 years since vaccination rates have hovered near zero. In October of 2020, in an attempt to mitigate this lingering disaster, the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW) agency finally revised its HPV vaccination informational leaflet that was designed to be distributed by local governments nationwide. Prior to this revision, Toyonaka City, in Japan's Osaka province, had already begun sending out their own unique leaflet to girls in the targeted 6th-10th grades. As a preview of how MHLW's revised leaflet might eventually succeed, we have studied the HPV vaccination results from Toyonaka City's experiment.

METHOD

This study was a population-based analysis that compared the monthly rates of new vaccinations in girls of a targeted grade school age group. We looked at rates before and after the leaflets were sent by Toyonaka City's Division of Health Promotion and Senior Services.

RESULTS

The vaccination rates between April 2020 and March 2021 were improved across all grades; 1.2% in 6th grade (p = 0.000185), 2.5% in 7th grade (p < 0.0001), 3.5% in 8th grade (p < 0.0001), 6.8% in 9th grade (p < 0.0001), and a remarkable 16.5% in 10th grade (p < 0.0001).

CONCLUSION

When a local government sends an HPV informational leaflet targeted at young girls, it can significantly improve their HPV vaccination rates.

The Chasm We Must Cross in Japan for Re-promotion of the HPV Vaccine

In Japan, the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rate has decreased from around 70% to less than 1% due to repeated media reports of diverse symptoms after HPV vaccination, and to suspension of the governmental recommendation. The challenges for re-promotion of the vaccine will be discussed from a marketing perspective. The adopter categories by which a new product penetrates the market can be divided into five groups, including Innovators, Early adopters, Early majority, Late majority, and Laggards The 16.0% line, which is the sum of the percentages of the innovators and the early adopters, is thought to be an important determinate of whether a new product will penetrate the market. By various initiatives, vaccination coverage has recently risen to about 10%; however, there is still a large chasm difficult to cross before reaching the majority of individuals. To cross that chasm, peer education will be essential. First, community health workers will need to be educated so that they have a firm understanding of HPV vaccine and can confidently recommend vaccination to the targeted population. That population will be expected to pass on that recommendation to their acquaintances, resulting in widening dissemination of HPV vaccine among the majority.

A survey of 20-year-old Japanese women: how is their intention to undergo cervical cancer screening associated with their childhood HPV vaccination status?

INTRODUCTION

In Japan, two groups of women, HPV vaccinated and unvaccinated, are approaching age 20, when they should begin cervical cancer screening. To improve Japan's current poor cervical cancer screening rate, we need to know how these women are thinking about screening.

METHODS

We conducted an internet survey of 20-y-old women, exploring their understanding of HPV and cervical cancer screening. We then gave them leaflets with basic information about HPV and cervical cancer, stressing the importance of early detection by screening. We analyzed the leaflet's effects on their attitudes based on their vaccination status.

RESULTS

Our study of 618 women found a significantly higher intention for engagement for cervical cancer screening in women HPV-vaccinated as teenagers (29% versus 17%). They were also more aware that: (1) HPV is transmitted by sexual intercourse (49.1% versus 39.2%); (2) the HPV vaccine prevents cervical cancer (49.0% to 34.0%); and (3) the appropriate cervical cancer screening interval is every 2 y (63.3% versus 56.2%). Women in both groups responded well to the leaflet, with significant improvements in intention to receive screening. However, 65%-67% were not swayed.

DISCUSSION

HPV-vaccinated women were more knowledgeable about cervical cancer and had a greater intention to receive screening. Our educational leaflet was moderately effective in both groups for increasing intentions to screen, but the majority in both groups were still resistant to screening.

CONCLUSION

Japan needs to develop more effective educational programs and tools to vigorously impart the importance of cervical cancer screening.

Effectiveness of Mass and Small Media Campaigns to Improve Cancer Awareness and Screening Rates in Asia: A Systematic Review

PURPOSE

The main objective of this systematic review was to identify whether mass and small media interventions improve knowledge and attitudes about cancer, cancer screening rates, and early detection of cancer in Asia.

METHODS

The review was conducted according to a predefined protocol. Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar were searched in September 2017, and data extraction and rating of methodologic study quality (according to Joanna Briggs Institute rating procedures) were performed independently by reviewers.

RESULTS

Twenty-two studies (reported across 24 papers) met the inclusion criteria. Most studies (n = 21) were conducted in high or upper-middle income countries; targeted breast (n = 11), cervical (n = 7), colorectal (n = 3), or oral (n = 2) cancer; and used small media either alone (n = 15) or in combination with mass media and other components (n = 5). Studies regarding cancer screening uptake were of medium to high quality and mainly reported positive outcomes for cervical cancer and mixed results for breast and colorectal cancer. The methodologic strength of research that investigated change in cancer-related knowledge and the cost effectiveness of interventions, respectively, were weak and inconclusive.

CONCLUSION

Evidence indicated that small media campaigns seemed to be effective in terms of increasing screening uptake in Asia, in particular cervical cancer screening. Because of the limited number of studies in Asia, it was not possible to be certain about the effectiveness of mass media in improving screening uptake and the effectiveness of campaigns in improving cancer-related knowledge.

Processing fluency effect of a leaflet for breast and cervical cancer screening: a randomized controlled study in Japan

Processing fluency (the inferred subjective ease with which people process information) has been a topic of increasing research attention in the field of psychology over the past decade. We examined the effect of improving written materials in terms of processing fluency with regard to encouragement for obtaining breast and cervical cancer screening. We randomly assigned 670 women to intervention or control conditions; the 215 who mailed back distributed questionnaires were the study participants. A standard leaflet for cancer screening was mailed to the control group, while the materials mailed to the intervention group were improved in terms of perceptual fluency (e.g., legibility), linguistic fluency (e.g., readability), retrieval fluency (e.g., reducing amount of information) and imagery fluency (having recipients imagine future behavior and events). The screening rate of the intervention group was significantly higher than that of the control group (29.4% vs. 14.2%, χ² = 7.275, df = 1, p = .007, φ = .184). Improving the processing fluency of written materials may be useful for encouraging individuals to obtain breast and cervical cancer screening.

Motivating Mothers to Recommend Their 20-Year-Old Daughters Receive Cervical Cancer Screening: A Randomized Study

Background

In Japan, the rate of cervical cancer screening is remarkably low, especially among women in their twenties and thirties, when cervical cancer is now increasing dramatically. The aim of this study was to test whether a modified government reminder for 20-year-old women to engage in cervical cancer screening, acting through maternal education and by asking for a maternal recommendation to the daughter to receive the screening, could increase their participation rate.

Methods

In two Japanese cities, 20-year-old girls who had not received their first cervical cancer screening before October of fiscal year 2014 were randomized into two study arms. One group of 1,274 received only a personalized daughter-directed reminder leaflet for cervical cancer screening. In the second group of 1,274, the daughters and their mothers received a combination package containing the same reminder leaflet as did the first group, plus an additional informational leaflet for the mother, which requested that the mother recommend that her daughter undergo cervical cancer screening. The subsequent post-reminder screening rates of these two study arms were compared.

Results

The cervical cancer screening rate of 20-year-old women whose mothers received the information leaflet was significantly higher than that for women who received only a leaflet for themselves (11% vs 9%, P = 0.0049).

Conclusions

An intervention with mothers, by sending them a cervical cancer information leaflet with a request that they recommend that their daughter receive cervical cancer screening, significantly improved their daughters’ screening rate.

Resource Use and Cost of Treating Human Papillomavirus-Related Lesions in Japanese Women

BACKGROUND

Human papillomavirus (HPV) infection is established as a necessary causal factor in several pathologies including cervical cancer (CC), which recorded over 11,000 new cases in 2011 in Japan. Nevertheless, cost burden data of human papillomavirus-related diseases in Japan are lacking.

OBJECTIVES

To evaluate resource use and costs in women with HPV-related lesions.

METHODS

A retrospective study using insurance claims databases was performed to assess the annual medical cost for suspected cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia (CIN)/CC, genital warts (GWs), CIN (all grades), and CC. Information on the treatment of GWs was obtained from the Claims Database developed by Japan Medical Data Center Co., Ltd. Information on CIN and CC was obtained from the Evidence-Based Medicine provider database developed by Medical Data Vision Co., Ltd. Databases cover about 1% of the Japanese population. Total annual cost in Japanese yen (¥) per patient in 2011 was calculated on the basis of resource used and unit costs from Japan medical insurance tariffs.

RESULTS

Average annual costs were as follows: GWs, ¥34,424; suspected CIN/CC, ¥6,240; CIN 1, ¥17,484; CIN 2, ¥46,583; CIN 3, ¥166,227; and CC, ¥474,756.

CONCLUSIONS

To our knowledge, this is the first observational study to estimate the annual medical costs of HPV-related diseases in Japan using real-world data collected in routine clinical practice. It could provide help in estimating the economic burden of HPV-related lesions in Japanese women.