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Hei Āhuru Mōwai, Māori Cancer Leadership Aotearoa
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Cervical cancer

On this page: resources published by other organisations, then the research assessed for this site.

This page points at research, and at resources published by other organisations. It is not advice about your own care or treatment.

Published by other organisations

4 booklets and reports published by other organisations. These belong to whoever wrote them and are not hosted here.

Research

5 papers on cervical cancer, from the research assessed for this site. Each is summarised below in words written for this site, not the authors’ own.

  1. Cervical Screening by HPV Self-Testing: A Game Changer for Māori (opens on the publisher’s website)

    2024

    Bev Lawton, Anna Adcock, Kendall Stevenson, Tania Slater, Francesca Storey

    What it found
    The chapter sets out why HPV self-testing changes cervical screening for wahine Maori. It reports that 41% of wahine Maori are underscreened or never screened against 21% of European and other women, and that HPV-based screening gives 60 to 70 per cent greater protection than cytology. From the He Tapu Te Whare Tangata studies, underscreened wahine Maori offered an HPV self-test were almost three times more likely to be screened, and those more than ten years from their last screen almost five times as likely. It records that in September 2023 Aotearoa New Zealand became the first high-income country to move straight to HPV self-testing as the primary screening method.
    How it was done
    book chapter drawing on the He Tapu Te Whare Tangata research programme: qualitative interviewing, clinical implementation and randomised controlled trials
    Why it matters
    This is a documented case of Maori-led research changing a national screening programme, and it names the organisations whose advocacy contributed.
    What it does not settle
    A chapter summarising a research programme rather than a single study, so the figures quoted rest on the underlying papers it cites, two of which are separately in this collection.

    Full textFull text, via the publisher's open-access page (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

  2. Perceived barriers to self-collected HPV testing for cervical cancer screening, and knowledge of HPV: a survey of primary healthcare smear-takers across Aotearoa New Zealand (opens on the publisher’s website)

    2024

    What it found
    The survey measured primary-care smear-takers' knowledge of HPV and their views on the shift to primary HPV testing, including home self-testing. Average knowledge score was 56.5%, with strong understanding of some areas (comparability of self- versus clinician-collected samples) and weak understanding of others, including the new recall guidelines. Respondents mostly rated the anticipated logistical barriers to home self-testing as minor, but 73.3% wanted further education on managing results under the new programme.
    How it was done
    cross-sectional web-based questionnaire, 73 respondents (67 completed in full), 57.8% completion rate
    Why it matters
    The paper's own introduction notes that 2022 national cervical screening coverage sat at 78% for non-Māori against 62% for Māori, so gaps in provider knowledge about the new HPV self-testing pathway land on a workforce already serving an unequal screening system.
    What it does not settle
    This assessment covers only the first five pages of the PDF (abstract through early results); the paper's own stated limitations, further results and full discussion were not read and are not represented here. The study itself is a single-round survey with a 57.8% completion rate, self-reported knowledge, and predominantly NZ European respondents (72.6%), with only 12.3% identifying as Māori.

    Full text, in partFull text, in part: the first five pages of the PDF only, to the start of the results. The discussion and the stated limitations were not read.

  3. A Model for Empowering Rural Solutions for Cervical Cancer Prevention (He Tapu Te Whare Tangata): Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Crossover Trial (opens on the publisher’s website)

    JMIR Research Protocols · 2023

    Lawton B, MacDonald EJ, Storey F, Stanton JA, Adcock A, Gibson M, Parag V, Sparkes NK, Kaimoana B, King F, Terry M, Watson H, Bennett M, Lambert CS, Geller S, Paasi I, Hibma M, Sykes P, Hawkes D, Saville M

    What it found
    This is a protocol paper, not a results paper. It sets out a trial comparing two pathways after a positive HPV self-test: one giving a point-of-care result within an hour with immediate referral to colposcopy, run through community-controlled services, against standard laboratory-based testing and referral. The primary measure is the share of women who reach colposcopy within 20 working days. In the first 15-month period, 743 eligible self-tests were done, split roughly evenly between the two pathways, with 7.3% testing positive for high-risk HPV.
    How it was done
    trial protocol, cluster randomised crossover design, two rural primary care sites; interim uptake figures only (743 HPV self-tests over the first 15-month period)
    Why it matters
    If the community-controlled, point-of-care pathway shortens the wait to colposcopy, it is a concrete model for closing a step in the cervical screening pathway where delay disproportionately affects rural Māori women.
    What it does not settle
    Protocol and interim uptake data only; the primary outcome (colposcopy timeliness by pathway) was not yet reported at the point this paper was published.

    Full textFull text, via PMC (PMC10540018).

    Read it free: A Model for Empowering Rural Solutions for Cervical Cancer Prevention (He Tapu Te Whare Tangata): Protocol for a Cluster Randomized Crossover Trial (opens on another organisation’s website)DOI 10.2196/51643

  4. Acceptability of human papillomavirus (HPV) self-sampling among never- and under-screened Indigenous and other minority women: a randomised three-arm community trial in Aotearoa New Zealand (opens on the publisher’s website)

    2021

    Naomi Brewer, Karen Bartholomew, Jane Grant, Anna Maxwell, Georgina McPherson, Helen Wihongi, Collette Bromhead, Nina Scott, Sue Crengle, Sunia Foliaki, Chris Cunningham, Jeroen Douwes, John D Potter

    What it found
    Never-screened and markedly under-screened Maori, Pacific and Asian women aged 30 to 69 were randomised to take an HPV self-sample at their clinic, to be mailed a kit to use at home, or to usual care by cytology. Participation was highest in the mailed-to-home group: 14.6% of Maori women against 2.0% under usual care. Adjusted for study group, screening history, deprivation and age, Maori women sent a kit were 9.7 times more likely to be screened than those offered usual care (95% CI 3.0 to 31.5), Pacific women 6.0 times and Asian women 5.1 times. Of those who self-sampled, 7.9% tested positive for a high-risk HPV type, and clinically appropriate follow-up was completed for 92% of them, needing a mean of 2.5 hours of nurse time each.
    How it was done
    open-label three-arm randomised community trial, 3,553 women, with a non-randomised follow-on substudy
    Why it matters
    It shows the route that actually reaches the women the screening programme has never reached, and it puts a number on the follow-up workforce that route requires.
    What it does not settle
    The authors note they could not tell whether non-responders ever received the invitation, so participation may be underestimated; recruitment was limited to two Auckland districts, so the findings may not carry to rural areas; and participants and staff could not be blinded.

    Full textFull text, from the publisher's page (open access).

  5. Recommendations for implementing HPV Self-testing in Aotearoa (opens on the publisher’s website)

    2021

    What it found
    Written after the 2021 Budget announcement of funding for a national HPV self-testing programme, this editorial by researchers and health board staff who ran New Zealand's HPV self-testing trials sets out recommendations for the Ministry of Health's rollout. These include making Māori health equity the organising principle of implementation rather than an add-on, reviewing the legislation governing the national cervical screening programme to strengthen Māori governance over screening data, building risk-stratified and culturally safe colposcopy and follow-up pathways, and offering an on-request mailed self-test alongside clinic-based testing.
    How it was done
    editorial / expert recommendations, not a primary study
    Why it matters
    It put Māori governance over cervical screening data on the table as part of the implementation design, ahead of the 2023 national rollout of HPV self-testing.
    What it does not settle
    This is an editorial by the people who ran the underlying self-testing trials; several authors declare Health Research Council funding, pharmaceutical or diagnostics industry fees, or a seat on the National Screening Advisory Committee. It sets out recommendations rather than new data.

    Full textFull text, all pages of the NZMJ PDF, including the author declarations and references.

How this page was put together

The research summaries

Each summary was written for this site, and it is not the authors’ own abstract. None of it has been reviewed by Hei Āhuru Mōwai. Of the papers listed here, 4 were read in full and 1 in part. Each entry carries the note of what was read, because a summary built from an abstract carries less weight than one built from the paper.

Resources published by other organisations

Each one opens a record on this site naming the publisher, carrying their own note about the edition and about how they are funded where they give one. The document itself is on the publisher’s website. None of it is hosted here, and it remains theirs.

Which of these appear, and how they are grouped, is a choice made for this site. It is not Hei Āhuru Mōwai’s view on what any of them says.

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