A predictive study of reasons for attendance and non-attendance at a breast screening programme

Abstract

Reasons given by 913 women for accepting or declining an invitation to undergo routine breast screening for the first time are reported. The extent to which reasons were a valid source of information was assessed by using prospective measures obtained three months prior to the receipt of the invitation to predict reasons reported nine months later. Baseline measures included previous screening, wony about and perceived chance of getting breast cancer, anxiety, beliefs, intention to attend and sociodemographic factors. Among attenders, wony was associated with giving “peace of mind” as a reason and a higher perceived chance with “awareness of risk”. Intention to attend was predictive of “desire to know whether cancer is present”. Higher socioeconomic status, previous screening and positive beliefs were predictive of non-attendance due to “recent screening”. “Fear” and “not at risk” were underrepresented. The obtained consistencies point towards retrospectively reported reasons as valid indications of women's motives.

Key Words:

• Breast cancer
• screening
• reasons
• health beliefs
• predictive
• attendance