Background:
The global strategy towards the elimination of cervical cancer (WHO), proposes to achieve screening coverage in two rounds higher than 70%, therefore it is important to establish the compliance of women to cervical cytology. OBJECTIVE: To determine the relationship between patient compliance with cervical cytology screening and the factors associated with primary health care services.

Method:
Through a cross-sectional, observational, and analytical study, we analyzed 32001 records of women affiliated to the subsidized health insurance from 2014 to 2018. We classified women according to compliance with cytology rounds into three groups: i. women not attending the program (NAP), ii. women who did not return to the next round (WNR) iii. women up to date in screening (WUD). A multinomial logistic regression model was used to identify the behavior of associated factors in each group: distance in kilometers from the patient’s home to the health care center (DIST) and the average number of annual medical consultations made by women in primary health care services (MCPHC).

Results:
No significant relations were identified in the groups when there was a change in DIST. While MCPHC showed statistically significant relationships in the NAP and WNR groups. In the WNR group the probability of being up to date with the screening increased as the frequency of MCPHC increased as follows: 1-3 times OR=720.2688; IC95%=380.11-1364.82; 4-10 times OR=1329.3304; IC95%=707.10-2499-08; 11-20 times OR 1892-36 IC95%=1008.68-3550.22;; In the WUD group, the same tendency was observed: 1-3 times OR=8-93 IC95%=7.89-10.11; 4-10 times OR=21.34 IC 95%=19.27-23.64; 11-20 times OR=41.13 IC95%=37.39-45.26.

Conclusions:
Inducing attendance to primary health care services for any reason is useful to prevent cervical cancer. There was no relation between distance from patient’s home to health care center and adherence to cytology; other approaches should be integrated for a better understanding of the proximity phenomena.