Last Wednesday 1st February 2023 the European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides, presented the EU Country Profiles at the Conference on cancer held in Stockholm.
The Country Cancer Profiles aim to identify inequalities, strengths, challenges and specific areas of action on cancer prevention and care for the EU Member States, Norway and Iceland.
They shed light on key achievements, challenges and disparities within each country and compare the findings for individual countries to the situation in the European Union as a whole. This can support policymakers and help guide investment and interventions at regional, national and EU level under Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan.
Naturally, the document includes information on the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer. In the case of Slovakia it states that the cervical cancer screening participation rate is higher than the EU average, but the education gap is large.
According to the European Health Interview Survey (EHIS), in 2019, 64 % of women aged 15 years and over reported having had cervical cancer screening in the past three years, which was higher than the EU average of 60 %. However, among those with lower education, the cervical cancer screening participation rate was lower compared to the EU average levels (33 % in Slovak Republic vs. 42 % across the EU).
The data suggest that tackling these inequalities in Slovakia, as PRESCRIP-TEC project is doing, should be one of the priorities in cervical cancer prevention.
The 2023 EU Country Cancer profiles can be found here:
https://www.oecd.org/health/eu-cancer-profiles.htm each in their respective regional and/or national language(s) and in English.
