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Article History

Received: 18 December 2025

Accepted: 8 July 2026

First Online: 17 July 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: Data collection for HINTS 7 was reviewed and approved by the Westat Institutional Review Board. While the Declaration of Helsinki was not formally adopted within the US regulatory framework, the HINTS 7 survey was conducted in accordance with applicable U.S. federal regulations governing research involving human participants with ethical oversight provided in accordance with the U.S. Common Rule (45 CFR 46). HINTS 7 survey participants provided informed consent at the time of administration. Our study is a secondary analysis of publicly available, de-identified data, which does not constitute human subjects research; therefore, no additional ethical approval or consent was required.

Consent for publication: Not applicable.

Competing interests: Dr. MacLaughlin currently serves as a member of the steering committee for the American Cancer Society’s National Roundtable on Cervical Cancer and as a co-chair of the HPV Self-Collection work group for the American Cancer Society’s National Roundtable on Cervical Cancer. All other authors have no potential conflicts of interest to declare.