Trends in the use of cervical cancer screening tests in a large medical claims database, United States, 2013-2019.

Abstract Objective To examine trends in the use of cervical cancer screening tests during 2013–2019 among commercially insured women. Methods The study population included women of all ages with continuous enrollment each year in the IBM MarketScan commercial or Medicare supplemental databases and without known history of cervical cancer or precancer (range = 6.9–9.8 million women per year). Annual cervical cancer screening test use was examined by three modalities: cytology alone, cytology plus HPV testing (cotesting), and HPV testing alone. Trends were assessed using 2-sided Poisson regression. Results Use of cytology alone decreased from 34.2% in 2013 to 26.4% in 2019 among women aged 21–29 years (P  Conclusions Temporal changes in the use of cervical cancer screening tests among commercially insured women track changes in clinical guidelines. Screening test use among individuals younger than 21 years shows that many young women are inappropriately screened for cervical cancer.