Cervical cancer among Swedish women with drug use disorders: A nationwide epidemiological study

Background/Aim: Cervical cancer incidence and mortality has decreased after introduction of national screening in Sweden, but women with drug use disorders (DUD) are less likely to participate in screening programs. We aimed to investigate cervical cancer incidence and mortality among women with DUD compared to the general female population in Sweden. Methods: We conducted a cohort study based on Swedish national register data for the period January 1997–December 2015. Data was collected for 3,838,248 women aged 15–75 years of whom 50,858 had DUD. Adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) for incident and fatal cervical cancer were calculated for women with and without DUD using Cox regression analysis. Results: DUD was significantly associated with incident cervical cancer (HR = 1.39, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.39–1.61), but not fatal cervical cancer (HR = 1.25, 95% CI: 0.91–1.71), after adjusting for age, educational attainment, social welfare, region of residence, marital status and HIV infection. Conclusion: Women with DUD were thus identified as a risk group for incident cervical cancer, which calls for attention from clinicians and policy makers. It is possible that non-attendance in cancer screening and other healthcare seeking barriers may affect the risk of incident cervical cancer among women with DUD but more research on this topic is needed.