Explaining attendance at a breast-screening clinic

This paper describes an analysis of the social, psychological and demographic factors associated with attendance/non-attendance at a clinic providing mammography and an examination carried out by medically-trained staff. Six hundred and fifty-four women aged 45-64 were interviewed approx. 1 month before they received an invitation to attend for breast screening. Seventy-two percent of these women subsequently attended the clinic. In all 30 different variables were measured. The attender could best be characterised as someone who previously used other types of preventive health service, felt vulnerable to breast cancer and saw breast screening as being beneficial. The implications of these and other findings are discussed.