What are the psychological factors influencing attendance, non-attendance and re-attendance at a breast screening centre?

We describe some preliminary findings from a pilot study using three recently developed questionnaires which assessed items such as the health beliefs, knowledge about cancer and attitudes to breast cancer screening in 242 women invited to attend for mammographic screening in South East London. We suggest that these questionnaires should be used in all regional centres both to monitor psychological variables and to identify local problems within the service which may be influencing the up-take of invitations to come for screening.