We’ve made a change to how we calculate coverage for CervicalCheck in line with international standards. This change will improve the accuracy of our cervical screening data.
What is cervical screening coverage
Cervical screening coverage is a key performance indicator for our CervicalCheck programme. This metric evaluates the effectiveness of CervicalCheck by determining if eligible women have been screened within the recommended timeframe for their specific testing intervals. CervicalCheck aims to achieve at least 80% coverage of the target population.
What change has been made
We are now measuring coverage over 5.5 years instead of 5 years.
The revised definition for calculating cervical screening coverage is “the number of participants aged 25 to 65 who had a cervical screening test over 5.5 years as a proportion of the number of eligible women aged 25 to 65 in the population of Ireland”.
This is similar to recent changes to Australia’s screening coverage calculation.
Why we made this change
Measuring our coverage over 5.5 years is an internationally recognised standard. We know from research that 60% of women respond to invites to cervical screening within 6 months.
Improving how we calculate our coverage ensures that women who are invited for cervical screening within the 5-year period are allowed enough time to attend screening and be captured accurately as participants in the programme in that 5-year period.
When the change takes effect
This change is reflected in the data reported in our most recent CervicalCheck Programme Report 2023-2024. We have also added a new internationally recognised metric of measuring our coverage over 3.5 years for women aged 25 to 29.
The change will also be reflected in our 2026 quarterly activity and performance data reports and in all future programme reports.
What the changes mean to our data
The change from 5 years to 5.5 years will make a small but important difference in our cervical screening coverage, which should increase, reflecting the additional time captured. We will monitor any changes to coverage reported.
- Cervical screening intervals and invitations to screening have not changed. CervicalCheck is for women and people with a cervix aged 25 to 65 who have no symptoms of cervical cancer. We invite those aged 25 to 29 every 3 years, and those aged 30 to 65 every 5 years.