National Cervical Screening Programme interactive coverage data tool

This tool provides information of programme coverage for the National Cervical Screening Programme.

The Programme has a responsibility under te Tiriti o Waitangi to eliminate differences in screening coverage between Māori and non-Māori. Our equity target also includes eliminating equity gaps for Pacific and Asian women and reach 80 percent coverage for all.

Monitoring coverage is critical for understanding how well the programme is performing and identifying where we could do better. Coverage is defined as the proportion of wāhine and other individuals eligible for screening who have been screened in a given time period.

COVID-19 impacts

From August 2022, additional tabs have been added to provide monitoring of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the National Cervical Screening Programme.

The extra tabs provide data on numbers needed to screen to reach equity by ethnicity, numbers needed to screen to reach target by ethnicity, and estimates of the impact of COVID-19 on coverage including by ethnicity.

The data presented help identify and highlight areas where focus and resources need to be targeted in recovery planning.

Robust planning for the recovery approach for the screening programme is underway. In recognition that Māori and Pacific have suffered a disproportionate burden of the COVID-19 pandemic, and because inequities in the programme persisted pre COVID-19, a Te Tiriti o Waitangi and equity focused approach is being taken to recovery planning. Activities will be focused on achieving equitable access to screening as a priority. The data analysis provided here is a key component to ensuring resources are targeted where they are needed, and the impact recovery efforts have on screening coverage is recorded.

When viewing the COVID-19 Impact analyses it is also important to note that difference is coverage compared to the period just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic arriving in Aotearoa, New Zealand. At that time, NCSP coverage was not equitable and had been dropping for all ethnic groups apart from the Other category.

October 2023 update

The NCSP coverage report has now been updated to include coverage up to and including 30 September 2023.

There has been a change to the coverage calculation to align with the transition to HPV primary screening, which began on 12 September 2023. The metrics have been updated to include ‘Coverage: Up-to-Date’ and ‘Coverage: Up-to-Date and Less than two years overdue’, the definitions of which can be found in the Technical Notes section. The metrics of 1-year coverage and First Screens will no longer be calculated. The downloadable dataset also has columns updated as a result of these changes.

The definition of ‘District’ has been updated to where a participant lived at the time they were screened, if they had multiple screens during the coverage period then the most recent is used.

All above changes have been applied consistently to the whole time series.

Monthly coverage updates will resume on the 25th of each month or closest business day.

How it works

Clicking on one of the tabs above will take you to a specific view of coverage.

Data tables are available at the bottom of each page and the full dataset can be downloaded for further analysis. Charts can be saved by clicking the 'export' button.

Download the data

The full dataset is available to download as a .csv file, which can be opened in Excel or a similar programme. This enables users to view breakdowns, stratifications, etc., not shown here. The file will take some time to generate and download.

Download Full Dataset

Time period selected

By default the app shows the latest data. To view data from previous months, use the time period drop-down menu on the left.

Support

For support contact:

nsu-dataenquiries@health.govt.nz

How the equity and performance matrix works

The matrix brings together the two measures of equity and performance.

Performance (illustrated vertically) is the difference (percentage point) between the population of interest and programme target (80% Coverage).

Equity (illustrated horizontally) is the difference (percentage point) between the performance of the population of interest and the reference population (non-Māori, non-Pacific and non-Asian).

For further information on the Equity and Performance Matrix see here.

Data Table

Data Table

Data Table

Coverage

In this app, coverage is calculated by dividing the number of participants screened during a specified period by the estimated eligible population (adjusted for the prevalence of hysterectomy). 'Screened' includes participants who have had primary screens or follow-up tests within a relevant time period i.e. HPV, cytology or histology, whichever is the most recent. Each participant is only counted once.

Screened individuals (the numerator) are included in the coverage calculations based on their age at the end of the monitoring period. The eligible population (the denominator) is the projected population for the end-point of the monitoring period e.g., for coverage as of October 2023, the denominator is the projected population for 31 October 2023. A monthly smoothing method is applied to population projections. This method gradually applies each new year’s projected population over a 12-month period by applying changes in twelfths for each month.

Coverage: Up-to-Date

This indicator replaces the “3-year coverage” calculation to make it relevant following the change to HPV primary screening from the previous cytology-based programme.

The calculation of coverage considers when the participant's most recent test was in relation to the implementation of HPV primary screening to account for the change to the screening interval. This allows coverage to continue to be monitored during the transition period. For example, a participant whose most recent test was prior to the 12th of September 2023 would be considered up-to-date for a period of three years following that test. A participant whose most recent test was after the 12th of September 2023 would be considered up-to-date for a period of five years following that test.

Coverage: Up-to-Date and Less than two years overdue

This indicator is calculated like Up-to-Date Coverage so it takes into account when the participant’s most recent test was. It considers coverage that is Up-to-Date but also less than two years overdue. This means five years if the participant’s most recent test was prior to the 12th of September 2023, and seven years if it was after. This indicator replaces the “5-year coverage” calculation.

Confidence Intervals

A confidence interval is a range of values that describes the uncertainty surrounding an estimate. Confidence intervals are one way to represent how 'good' an estimate is; the larger a confidence interval, the more caution is required when using the estimate. This report uses the exact binomial method.

Ethnicity

For both participants screened and in the denominator, participants have been prioritised to a single ethnicity using the following priority order: Māori, Pacific, Asian, European/Other. This means that if a participant chooses more than one category, and one of these is Māori, they are counted as Māori

District

The district is based on where the participant lived at the time they were screened. If they had multiple screens during the coverage period then the most recent is used.

Deprivation

This report uses Otago University's NZDep2018 index as an indicator of socio-economic deprivation. The NZDep2018 index estimates the relative deprivation of an area using census data relating to income, home ownership, employment, qualifications, family structure, housing, access to transport and communications. Quintile 1 is the least deprived and quintile 5 is the most deprived.

Data Source

Cervical screening data is sourced from the National Cervical Screening Programme Register.

Ethnicity and domicile data is sourced from the Ministry of Health's National Health Index.

Population data is sourced from Statistics New Zealand Population Projections, we are using the 2022 population update of the 2018 census.

Deprivation data is sourced from Otago University's NZDep2018 index.