[Can the search for early stages of cancer of the cervix uteri be improved? An empirical and theoretical study from sociology in medicine (author's transl)].

Using a standardised questionnaire, 7356 women, patients at the Erlanger Universitäts-Frauenklinik, were interviewed. Women with cervical cancer or carcinoma in situ of the cervix were compared with the remaining patients. Social factors are described which are more frequent with women with cervical cancer than with other women. The more such individual factors are added together, the greater the risk of developing a cervical cancer. Further, social factors are investigated which prevent women from going to prophylactic examinations. The more such factors are encountered, the greater the probability that a woman will not go to prophylactic examinations. Both results were to be expected from common-sense, but until now confirmation by empirical investigation was lacking. The greater the risk of getting cervical cancer, the greater the probability that screening will be avoided. This result show that cervical cancer is to be expected in the greater proportion of about 70% of women over the age of 30 who do not go for prophylactic examination, compared with the 30% who undergo prophylactic examination anually.