A. Summers et B. Fullard, IMPROVING THE COVERAGE AND QUALITY OF CERVICAL SCREENING - WOMENS VIEWS, Journal of public health medicine, 17(3), 1995, pp. 277-281
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.