To assess whether ethnic inequalities in cervical cancer mortality are due to differences in survival independent of stage and age at diagnosis, and to assess the contribution of screening to stage at diagnosis, this investigation examined demographic data and cervical screening history for 402 women with histologically proven primary invasive cervical cancer, diagnosed in New Zealand between 1 January 2000 and 30 September 2002. Date of death was available for women who died up to 30 September 2004. In an age-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model, the Māori mortality rate was 1.80 times that of non-Māori. This reduced to 1.25 after adjusting for stage at diagnosis. Among determinants of late stage at diagnosis, older age and being Māori significantly increased the risk, while screening was protective.
