When Life Got in the Way: How Danish and Norwegian Immigrant Women in Sweden Reason about Cervical Screening and Why They Postpone Attendance

INTRODUCTION: Danish and Norwegian immigrant women in Sweden have an increased risk of cervical cancer compared to Swedish-born women. In addition, Danish and Norwegian immigrant women follow the national recommendations for attendance at cervical screening to much lesser extent than Swedish-born women. The aim of this study was to explore how Danish and Norwegian immigrant women in Sweden reason about attending cervical screening, focusing on women’s perceptions as to why they and their compatriots do not attend. METHODS: Eight focus group discussions (FGDs) were conducted with Danish and Norwegian immigrant women living in Stockholm. The women were between 26 and 66 years of age at the time of the FGDs, and were aged between <1 and 48 years old when they immigrated to Sweden. A FGD guide was used, which included questions related to cervical screening, and obstacles and motivators to attend cervical screening. The FGDs were tape recorded and transcribed, and the results analysed according to the principles of qualitative content analysis. RESULTS: The main theme was “Women have a comprehensive rationale for postponing cervical screening, yet do not view themselves as non-attenders”. Investigation of women’s rationale for non-attendance after being invited to cervical screening revealed some complex reasons related to immigration itself, including competing needs, organisational and structural factors and differences in mentality, but also reasons stemming from other factors. Postponing attendance at cervical screening was the category that linked all these factors as the reasons to why women did not attend to cervical screening according to the recommendations of the authorities. CONCLUSIONS: The rationale used to postpone cervical screening, in combination with the fact that women do not consider themselves to be non-attenders, indicates that they have not actively taken a stance against cervical screening, and reveals an opportunity to motivate these women to attend.