Attendance and reattendance for breast cancer screening: A prospective 3-year test of the Theory of Planned Behaviour

Objective. To test the ability of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) to predict attendance for breast cancer screening and reattendance 3 years lat er, using data from a prospective longitudinal study. Method. A total of 1215 women who had never had breast screening completed a postal questionnaire sent to them shortly before they were to receive the ir first invitation for X-ray mammography in the UK's National Health Servi ce Breast Screening Programme. The questionnaire included items to tap atti tude, subjective norm, perceived behavioural control and intention to atten d. Attendance and then reattendance 3 years later were monitored from scree ning clinic records. Results. Two main results are reported. (1) Intention and first-time attend ance were predicted successfully from the TPB, and attendance was the singl e predictor of reattendance 3 years later. (2) The TPB was able to distingu ish between intenders who attended and those who did nor. Conclusion. The implications of the results are considered both for theory and for policy and practice. Particular attention is paid to the possibilit y of designing interventions to increase attendance and reattendance.