Pap Smears (%)
Papanicolaou (Pap) smears remain the primary screening tool to help identify and prevent cervical cancer. Nevertheless, many women do not receive regular Pap smears,1 especially older women, uninsured women and women in key minority groups.2 When cervical cancer is identified early it is highly treatable and associated with long survival and good quality of life, but 6 out of 10 cervical cancer cases occur in women who have never been screened or who have not received a Pap test in the past five years. Regular Pap smears are essential to women’s health and when widely adopted, assist to reduce mortality and morbidity rates associated with cervical cancer.3
What percentage of women age 18 and older have had a Pap test within the past three years?
The Report Card benchmark is the Healthy People 2010 goal that at least 90 percent of women age 18 and older have received a Pap test in the past three years [Healthy People 2010 Objective 3-11b].
| State | State Overall Data | State Grade | State Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alabama | 77.4 | F | 33 |
| Alaska | 79.2 | F | 18 |
| Arizona | 78.7 | F | 21 |
| Arkansas | 73.0 | F | 48 |
| California | 80.0 | F | 15 |
| Colorado | 78.0 | F | 25 |
| Connecticut | 81.0 | U | 8 |
| Delaware | 84.6 | U | 2 |
| District of Columbia | 86.2 | S- | 1 |
| Florida | 79.1 | F | 20 |
| Georgia | 84.1 | U | 3 |
| Hawaii | 80.6 | U | 12 |
| Idaho | 69.5 | F | 50 |
| Illinois | 78.3 | F | 22 |
| Indiana | 73.7 | F | 46 |
| Iowa | 78.1 | F | 23 |
| Kansas | 77.8 | F | 29 |
| Kentucky | 77.0 | F | 36 |
| Louisiana | 74.1 | F | 43 |
| Maine | 79.6 | F | 17 |
| Maryland | 80.9 | U | 9 |
| Massachusetts | 83.5 | U | 4 |
| Michigan | 80.7 | U | 11 |
| Minnesota | 79.2 | F | 18 |
| Mississippi | 77.3 | F | 35 |
| Missouri | 77.6 | F | 31 |
| Montana | 74.1 | F | 43 |
| Nebraska | 76.4 | F | 39 |
| Nevada | 73.4 | F | 47 |
| New Hampshire | 80.3 | F | 14 |
| New Jersey | 78.1 | F | 23 |
| New Mexico | 76.2 | F | 41 |
| New York | 81.2 | U | 6 |
| North Carolina | 82.5 | U | 5 |
| North Dakota | 77.6 | F | 31 |
| Ohio | 78.0 | F | 25 |
| Oklahoma | 74.0 | F | 45 |
| Oregon | 74.9 | F | 42 |
| Pennsylvania | 77.8 | F | 29 |
| Rhode Island | 81.1 | U | 7 |
| South Carolina | 80.5 | F | 13 |
| South Dakota | 77.4 | F | 33 |
| Tennessee | 78.0 | F | 25 |
| Texas | 77.9 | F | 28 |
| Utah | 69.0 | F | 51 |
| Vermont | 80.9 | U | 9 |
| Virginia | 79.7 | F | 16 |
| Washington | 76.5 | F | 38 |
| West Virginia | 76.3 | F | 40 |
| Wisconsin | 76.8 | F | 37 |
| Wyoming | 72.8 | F | 49 |
Data Source: Pap Smears (%), 2008.
EXPLANATION: This measure includes women age 18 and older in the non-institutionalized civilian population with a uterine cervix who reported that they have had a Pap smear within the past one to three years.
SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data (BRFSS), 2008, available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/index.asp and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Public Health and Science, Office on Women’s Health. Quick Health Data Online, 2010, Washington, DC, 2010, available at http://www.womenshealth.gov/quickhealthdata. The national overall number and national data by age are the median of 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data for race/ethnicity and age are two-year averages from 2006 and 2008 and are age-adjusted to the 2000 standard population. The following states included the question in 2007 and the data reported for these states represents three-year averages (Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Nevada, Tennessee, Virgin Islands, Wyoming).
Footnotes
1 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System Survey Data,” (Atlanta, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008), available at http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/brfss/list.asp?cat=WH&yr=2008&qkey=4426&state=All.
2 Kaiser Family Foundation, Putting Women’s Health Care Disparities on the Map: Examining Racial and Ethnic Disparities at the State Level, June 2009, available at http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/7886.pdf
3 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Cervical Cancer. Inside Knowledge Fact Sheet,” (undated), available at: http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/cervical/pdf/cervical_facts.pdf
