Statistics of the Cervical Screening Programme (From 2004 to 2010)

The Cervical Screening Programme (CSP) of Department of Health was launched on 8 March 2004. Up to 31 December 2010, over 406 000 women have registered with CSP. The registered women's cervical smear records were stored in the Cervical Screening Information System (CSIS) for information of themselves and their health care providers. The following items 1 - 5 are some statistics compiled from the CSIS.

1. Number of women registered with CSP

Up to 31 December 2010, a total of 406 530 women have registered with the CSP (Figure 1). Of these, 78 649, 103 201, 72 905, 50 167, 35 947 and 38 928 women registered in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 respectively. The registration figure in 2010 was 26 733.

The top 3 age groups of registrants were 45-49 years (17.3%), 40-44 years (16.3%) and 35-39 years (16.1%) (Figure 2). 96.5% of registrants were women aged 25-64. The top 3 districts in which the registrants were living as at 31 December 2010 were Shatin (9.9%), Yuen Long (9.3%) and Tuen Mun (8.9%) (Figure 3).

* Districts are classified according to the registered address as at 31 December 2010.

2. Number of cervical cytology tests done in registered women

Among the 406 530 women who have registered with CSP, there were 800 178 cervical cytology tests recorded in CSIS as at 31 December 2010. Of these, 88 497, 123 233, 115 774, 117 984, 119 074 and 122 658 smears were done in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, while 112 958 smears were recorded for 2010 (Figure 4).

* Year of cervical tests is defined as the year of test report date.   Figures may be different from the corresponding data in preceding reports due to updates in CSIS data.

Registrants in the age group of 40-44 had the highest number of cervical cytology test records, that was 143 803 (18.0%), followed by the age groups of 35-39 and 45-49 with 139 234 (17.4%) and 131 932 (16.5%) smears done respectively (Figure 5).

* Age groups are classified according to the age of the registered women as at year of test report date.

The registered women living in Yuen Long, Shatin and Kwai Tsing contributed the most to the total number of cervical cytology tests in CSIS. The number of cervical cytology tests done in registrants who live in these three districts were 80 665 (10.1%), 77 675 (9.7%) and 75 488 (9.4%) respectively (Figure 6).

* Districts are classified according to the registered address as at test report date.

3. General categorization of cervical smear results

For cervical cytology tests done among registered women from 2004 to 2010, the proportions of the results categorized according to the Bethesda System 2001 are shown in Figure 7. In the past seven years, around 92% of smear results were 'Negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy', while around 7% were abnormal. The proportions of negative (91.6%) and abnormal smears (7.6%) in 2010 were similar to those of 2006 to 2009 but had changed slightly when compared with the data of 2004 and 2005 (Figure 8).

* Year of cervical tests is defined as the year of test report date.   Figures may be different from the corresponding data in previous reports due to updates in CSIS data.

4. Abnormal cervical smear results

Up to 31 December 2010, a total of 57 960 abnormal cervical cytology tests were recorded among the registrants in CSIS from 2004 to 2010. The commonest abnormalities were atypical squamous cells of undetermined significance (ASCUS) (64.0%), followed by low-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (LSIL) (30.8%) and high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesion (HSIL) (3.3%). Squamous cell carcinoma and adenocarcinoma were found in 10 and 55 smears respectively (Figure 9).

The percentage of abnormal cervical smears among the registered women by age is shown in Figure 10. The highest proportion of epithelial cell abnormality (9.0%) was found in the age group of below 25, while the 60-64 age group had the lowest proportion of abnormal result (4.6%). The overall proportion of abnormal smears was 7.2%.

5. Online access to Cervical Screening Information System (CSIS) by registered women

During 2004 - 2010, the total count of online access to CSIS by registered women was 242 076. Over one-third were online access by registered women aged 35-44 (Figure 11).

* Age groups are counted as at date of submitting online enquiries.

6. Enquiries made by the public

In 2010, CSP had received a total of 13 760 public enquiries. Among them, 12 283 (89.3%) were enquiries through CSP hotline, 932 (6.8%) were through CSP email and 546 (4.0%) were public requests for obtaining information about cervical cancer or CSP through Health Education Hotline 2833 0111 of the Department of Health (Figure 12).