IMPROVING THE COVERAGE AND QUALITY OF CERVICAL SCREENING - WOMENS VIEWS

Background This study explored women's views on cervical screening fol lowing the introduction of the 1990 general practitioner (GP) contract , which has had a major impact on the approach to screening in general practices. Methods A total of 173 women of screening age attending su rgeries at six practices in Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley dist rict completed questionnaires in their GP surgery. Results Reasons for non-attendance for screening included both administrative failures an d reasons related to beliefs and attitudes. The change felt most likel y to improve coverage was more successful health education. Three-quar ters of women who had had a smear made positive comments on their expe rience, but when asked specifically about the information they had rec eived, three-quarters felt that this had been inadequate. Fewer than h alf of women questionnaire respondents were willing to suggest possibl e causes for cervical cancer and fewer than half were aware that the r isk of cervical cancer was low following treatment for an abnormality found on screening. Around one-fifth of women continue to prefer a wom an smear taker; of the 33 per cent expressing a preference for either a doctor or a nurse, opinion was roughly evenly divided between the tw o. Six per cent disliked having to wait so long for test results. Conc lusions This work suggests that within the established agenda for deve loping high-quality screening programmes, improvements in health educa tion may have the most impact from the viewpoint of women.