ABSTRACT
Interview data collected in March-September 1987 as part of an international multi-center study were used to assess Pap test coverage in the municipality of São Paulo and determine characteristics that made study subjects more likely or less likely to have been tested. The data analyzed came from interviews with 967 women. Information gathered during the interviews included demographic and socioeconomic data as well as information about use of health service facilities, use of oral contraceptives, breast self-examination, smoking, alcoholism, and prior Pap testing. The results showed that 666 (69%) of the women said they had received a Pap test in the past; 588 (61%) said they had one within three years of the interview; and 399 (41%) said they had one during the past year. Statistically significant relationships were found between Pap testing sometime in the past (and also Pap testing within the preceding three years) and age, education, marital status, use of oral contraceptives, breast self-examination, and consulting with a physician during the year preceding the interview. Adjustment for all the other statistically significant variables through multivariate analysis influenced but did not undo the statistical significance of each of these relationships. Overall, the results of this study point to levels of Pap test coverage exceeding those found by other São Paulo studies. One reason could have been this study's inclusion of Pap tests obtained at medical clinics that were not specifically accredited to give the test; another, which does not exclude the first, could have been a real increase in coverage resulting from increasing dissemination of messages in the 1980s stressing the importance of Pap testing. It is also noteworthy that 40% of the women interviewed said they had not had the test within the preceding three years. Characteristics associated with those not having had the test were youth (being 15-24 years old), being single, having low socioeconomic status, not having consulted a physician for a year, not having used oral contraceptives, and not having performed breast self-examination for a year. Knowing these characteristics could help implement measures to increase Pap test coverage of specific subgroups.
Subject(s)
Uterine Cervical Neoplasms/prevention & control , Vaginal Smears/statistics & numerical data , Adolescent , Adult , Brazil/epidemiology , Breast Self-Examination , Contraceptives, Oral , Demography , Female , Humans , Middle Aged , Socioeconomic Factors , Urban Population , Women's Health Services/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
The non-communicable chronic diseases are important causes of death in Brazil, mainly in the great urban centres. There are various risk factors related to these diseases, whose remotion or attenuation would contribute to a fall in mortality. The methodology of the first comprehensive multicenter study into risk factors of non-communicable chronic diseases carried out in Latin America is explained. In Brazil, this study was carried out in the cities of S. Paulo, SP and Porto Alegre, RS. Preliminary results from the city of S. Paulo as to the prevalence of arterial hypertension (22.3%), tabagism (37.9%), obesity (18.0%), alcoholism (7.7%) and sedentarism (69.3%) are presented. These results are compared with existing data from Brazil and other countries, and the relationship between various risk factors and the mortality from cardiovascular diseases in S. Paulo and some developed countries is discussed.
