PSYCHOLOGY AND SCREENING - NARROWING THE GAP BETWEEN EFFICACY AND EFFECTIVENESS

The success of any health-related screening programme depends primaril y upon behavioural factors, namely whether people attend, and for thos e who do attend, the cognitive, emotional and behavioural consequences of doing so. Some of the problems now evident in screening programmes , such as low attendance or high levels of anxiety following participa tion are due in part to an under-investigation of the psychological pr ocesses and outcomes critical to achieving the goals of screening prog rammes. These goals include high rates of informed participation and s atisfactory psychological outcomes of such participation. The developm ent of psychological models in this area may help in documenting the f actors mediating and moderating responses to screening, and may sugges t interventions likely to facilitate the achievement of the goals of a screening programme.