Introduction Cervical cancer (CC) is a disease of inequity, given the huge variation in mortality between the developed and developing world. Current CC screening approaches have limitations due to subjectivity, high costs, and/or low specificity, and the ongoing PECCaN study is investigating the diagnostic performance of the WID™-qCIN test, a DNA methylation biomarker-based test, for CC screening in Nigeria. This study aims to determine the acceptability of self-sampling for DNA methylation-based CC screening in Nigerian women.

Methods Cross-sectional survey of participants being recruited for the PECCAN study. Survey questions were analysed to determine the acceptability of self-collection for CC screening.

Results 120 women completed the survey. Mean participant age was 43. The majority of women (90%) had heard about CC. The majority of women (86.7%) had had a previous CC screening test. 12.5% of study participants indicated that they would prefer a self-collected cervical cancer screening test. The remainder indicated that they would prefer a clinician-collected sample. Commonly stated reasons for this preference were a lack of knowledge of how to correctly take a self-sample, and the belief that healthcare professionals would perform the procedure ‘better’.

Conclusion/Implications The majority of participants indicated a preference for an examination by a healthcare professional for CC screening, over a self-collected sample. This may be ascribed to a lack of knowledge of self-collection procedures. This requires careful consideration prior to implementing self-collected CC screening tests in this population, to ensure that the desired effect of increasing CC screening uptake is achieved.