Barriers and Facilitators to Colposcopy Follow-up After Abnormal Cervical Cancer Screening: Qualitative Insights From an Urban Health Care Setting.
Jaqueline Serrano Aguilar, Hunter K Holt, Caroline Beshers and 4 others
PMID 41160047WHAT IT FOUND
Patients who missed colposcopy cited competing life demands, fear of pain, and distrust of providers.
Flexible communication and direct contact with a known clinician helped some return. Barriers existed at individual, interpersonal, and system levels.
Key findings
01Participants cited competing demands from work, school, and family care, as well as other health issues, as primary reasons for missing appointments.
02Fear of pain and past negative experiences with providers, including feeling dismissed, created psychological obstacles to follow-up.
03Communication preferences varied, but many participants disliked receiving results solely via patient portals and preferred direct phone calls or interaction with a known provider.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only English-speaking patients at a single urban academic center, which may limit generalizability to other populations or settings. Participants were volunteers, so those who declined may have had different barriers or levels of engagement. Interviews were conducted by medical students via video call, which may have affected the depth of trust or rapport compared to in-person interviews with known clinicians. The study describes barriers and facilitators but does not test whether specific interventions improve follow-up rates.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was approved by the University of Illinois Chicago Institutional Review Board. No specific funding source was listed in the provided text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the themes as evidence that a specific intervention works. The study identifies barriers and patient preferences but did not test whether changing communication methods or scheduling practices actually improved follow-up rates.