Practice Patterns in Cervical Cancer Screening and Human Papillomavirus Testing

The use of human papillomavirus DNA testing plus Papanicolaou (Pap) testing (cotesting) for cervical cancer screening in women 30 years and older has been recommended since 2006. However, few studies have detailed the adoption of such cotesting in clinical practice. We examined the trends in monthly percentage of Pap tests ordered as cotests in our laboratory over a 2.5-year period and used joinpoint regression to identify periods in which there was a change in the average monthly proportion of cotests. Cotesting of patients 30 years and older increased from 15.9% in January 2008 to 39.4% in June 2010. In patients aged 18 to 29 years, cotesting initially increased, but showed a downward trend in the last 14 months of the study, ending at 7.7% in June 2010. Our study highlights increased adoption of age-appropriate cotesting as well as the persistence of age-inappropriate cotesting.