Acceptability of Self-Sampling for Cervical Screening in Ethnically Diverse Groups in Northwest England: A Focus Group Study

A study of 2500 women found 99.0% agreement between first-void urine and vaginal self-sampling for HPV detection using Cobas4800, with 98.1% of participants preferring urine. Although conducted in a resource-limited setting which may limit generalisability, these results support urine as a viable sample type for decentralised, patient-centric screening.

Comparative efficacy, feasibility and acceptability of HPV DNA testing on first-void urine versus self-collected vaginal samples: a real-world study in a resource-limited setting — Bose et al., BMJ global health · source ↗

• urine
• first-void
• self-collection
• acceptability
• hpv
• sti

First-void urine and self-collected vaginal swabs showed similar sensitivity and specificity to clinician-collected cervical samples for high-risk HPV detection across two real-time PCR assays, supporting their use as decentralised, patient-collected alternatives; most women preferred first-void urine for regular cervical screening.

Comparative performance of first-void urine and self-collected vaginal swabs against clinician-collected cervical samples using 2 HPV real-time assays in Indian women — A et al., Journal of gynecologic oncology (paywalled) · source ↗

• acceptability
• first-void
• sti
• self-collection
• hpv
• urine

This randomised sub-study found return rates of 10.4% for Colli-Pee, 10.1% for FLOQSwabs and 7.4% for Evalyn-Brush. All devices yielded sufficient DNA with low invalid rates, but the authors noted the study was limited by low overall participation.

Comparison of three different hpv self-sampling tools - a subanalysis of the prospective, randomized hannover self-collection study — Hempel et al., Archives of gynecology and obstetrics · source ↗

• urine
• first-void
• colli-pee
• self-collection
• acceptability
• hpv
• sti

Self-sampling for HPV testing using urine and swab devices achieved high DNA detection rates, 92.1-99.7%, and very high participant acceptance, 99.1%, in a primary care population, supporting decentralised screening in low-resource settings.

Population-based self-sampling under primary care conditions - a possible approach for cervical cancer screening in Indonesia (IndoCerCa study) — Wenang et al., Reproductive health · source ↗

• urine
• self-collection
• validation
• acceptability
• hpv
• sti

This meta-analysis found that urine self-sampling for HPV detection had significantly lower sensitivity for high-grade lesions compared to vaginal and cervical samples, though specificity remained comparable. Despite the reduced diagnostic accuracy, the non-invasive and acceptable nature of urine sampling supports its use as a decentralised option to improve screening uptake.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of diagnostic accuracy of urine self-sampling for human papillomavirus detection in cervical cancer screening — Nath et al., Journal of medical screening (paywalled) · source ↗

• acceptability
• sti
• self-collection
• hpv
• urine
• validation