Summary

The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) is a highly successful public health initiative in Australia, halving cervical cancer incidence and mortality since it was introduced in 1991.

The development of the first data dictionary for the NCSP started when NCSP program managers and data managers saw the implementation of clinical guidelines in 2005 as an opportunity to standardise data collections across jurisdictions through the development of a national cervical screening data dictionary. The then-called Standardised cervical screening data dictionary was further developed and expanded into the National cervical cancer prevention data dictionary, which was published in 2014.

This data dictionary promoted and supported national consistency in state and territory data collection and national reporting by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) for the NCSP until 30 November 2017. After which the renewed NCSP that commenced on 1 December 2017 was supported by a new data dictionary – the National Cervical Screening Program data dictionary version 1.0, which was published in May 2017.

This document, the National Cervical Screening Program data dictionary version 1.1, is the result of a comprehensive review and update, and supersedes version 1.0. Periodic reviews and updates to the National Cervical Screening Program data dictionary are needed to ensure this document continues to align with, and support data and reporting for, the NCSP.