Is pap smear primary or secondary prevention?

Answer 1

The goal of secondary prevention is to identify and detect disease in its earliest stages, before noticeable symptoms develop, when it is most likely to be treated successfully. With early detection and diagnosis, it may be possible to cure a disease, slow its progression, prevent or minimize complications, and limit disability.

The Pap smear or Pap test, is a screening examination for cancer of the cervix that has the potential to prevent practically all deaths from cervical cancer by finding cervical cancer at an early stage, when it is most curable, or even preventing the disease if precancerous lesions found during the test are treated

Pap smear therefore falls under secondary prevention

Answer 2

Secondary.

A primary prevention aims a preventing infection or disease in the first place. For example, a polio vaccine is a primary prevention method. A secondary prevention is a screening test to prevent a bad outcome of a disease not necessarily the initial infection. So in the case of a pap smear, we're not aiming to prevent HPV infection, but we are trying to prevent Cervical cancer which is a potential outcome. A helpful way to think of it is, the HPV vaccine is primary while the pap smear is a secondary.