Pap-test coverage in women aged 25 to 64 years old, according to the National Health Survey and the Surveillance System for Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases by Telephone Survey, 2013.

OBJECTIVES: To estimate and describe the coverage of the Pap Smear test reported by women aged 25 to 64 years old from data collected by the National Health Survey (Pesquisa Nacional de Saúde - PNS) and to compare the estimates made by the Surveillance System for Risk and Protective Factors for Chronic Diseases using a Telephone Survey (Vigitel) for the same indicator in the Brazilian capital cities and the Federal District in 2013.

METHODS: Based on the data from the PNS and Vigitel, we estimated prevalence and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) of women who reported having had a Pap test screening in the past 3 years.

RESULTS: According to the PNS, 79.4% (95%CI 78.5 - 80.2) of the women had had a cervical cancer screening in the past 3 years in Brazil. Women aged 55 to 64 years old (71.0%, 95%CI 68.7 - 73.3) and without an education or incomplete elementary school (72.1%, 95%CI 70.6 - 73.7) had the lowest prevalence, and 88.4% (95%CI 87.5 - 89.2) received test results within 3 months. There was no difference when comparing the estimates of the Vigitel with the PNS for the capital city and Federal District totals. In the PNS, the prevalence was 83.8% (95%CI 82.8 - 84.7) and in the Vigitel, it was 82.9% (95%CI 81.9 - 83.8). In addition, there were no differences by capital, except for Recife, Boa Vista, and João Pessoa.

CONCLUSION: Cervical cancer screening coverage for the target population is below the target of 85%. When comparing the data for the capital city and Federal District totals, we verified that the Vigitel System has been effective in monitoring this indicator, which is similar to PNS estimates.