Development and validation of the EBS: a measure to assess women's experience at all stages of the breast screening process.

This short report describes the systematic development and validation of the EBS (Experiences of Breast Screening) measure to assess women's experience of the breast screening process. For the NHS Breast Screening Programme to be successful attendance must be high and remain high at subsequent rounds. The aim of the EBS is to identify areas of the screening process that can be improved to achieve greater adherence to subsequent screening rounds. The EBS was developed using the available evidence, expertise of health professionals, pilot interviews and a pilot postal survey. The validity, reliability and acceptability were demonstrated from the results of a multi-centre postal survey, resulting in a final 21-item measure.