Association of Late Marriage and Low Childbirth with Cervical Cancer Screening among Korean Women: Results from a Nationwide Survey

This study aimed to identify the association of marriage and childbirth with the adherence to cervical cancer screening among young adult women. Data across four years (2017-2020) of the cross-sectional Korean National Cancer Screening Survey were used. For measuring the adherence to cervical cancer screening, we used the cervical cancer screening rate with recommendation, which was defined as the percentage of women in the population eligible for screening who have had a cervical cancer screening within the past two years. Multiple logistic regression analysis was conducted to identify the association between marriage and adherence to cervical cancer screening. Overall, 3925 women aged 20-39 years were analyzed. Of these, 39.1% were screened for cervical cancer (26.6% unmarried and 57.1% married women). The married women had significantly higher adherence to cervical cancer screening than unmarried women (adjusted odds ratio = 2.80, 95% CI: 2.99-3.44). Compared with unmarried women, adherence to cervical cancer screening was significantly more likely to increase (p for trend, <0.001) in married women with an increased number of births. Our study confirmed that marriage and childbirth influence adherence to cervical cancer screening, suggesting that unmarried women may be vulnerable to cervical cancer.