each address and contacted a ‘responsible adult’ in order to record details of all of those
in the household aged over 16. One person from each household was then randomly
selected and left a questionnaire. After follow-up letters and visits to the household,
65.1 per cent of the eligible sample completed the questionnaire. This paper reports the
results from 391 women who completed questions about breast and cervical screening
behaviour.Design The study involved a cross-sectional design with subjects completing a
questionnaire once.Measures The questionnaire consisted of the following measures:
1 Screening behaviour (the dependent variables). The subjects were asked about
their breast and cervical screening behaviour.
Breast screening behaviour: the subjects were asked ‘If you examine your breasts
for lumps how often do you do this?’ (rated from ‘once a month’ to less than ‘once
every six months’).
Cervical screening behaviour: the subjects were asked (i) ‘have you had a cervical
smear test’ (rated ‘once’, ‘several times’, ‘never’), (ii) ‘Did you have a smear test
because... (a) you asked for it, (b) your doctor suggested it, (c) it was taken
routinely at a post-natal check-up, (d) because of some other reason’. From these
responses the women were classified as non-attenders, passive attenders (following
advice from someone else) or active attenders (asked for the test).
2 Health beliefs (the independent variables). The subjects rated 22 items for how
much they agreed with them. These items reflected the dimensions of the health
belief model as follows:
Susceptibility: the subjects rated items such as ‘my chances of getting cancer are
great’ and ‘my physical health makes it more likely that I will get cancer’.
Seriousness: the subjects rated items such as ‘the thought of cancer scares me’ and
‘I am afraid to even think about cancer’.
Benefits: the subjects rated items such as ‘if cancer is detected early it can be
successfully treated’ and ‘there has been much progress in the treatment of cancer
in the past ten years’.
Barriers: the subjects rated items such as ‘I just don’t like doctors or hospitals’
and ‘I would be afraid that I might need to have an operation’.
Costs: the subjects rated items such as ‘I would have trouble because of the
distance or time to get to the doctor or clinic’ and ‘I would have to wait a long time
at the doctor’s office or clinic’.
In addition, the questionnaire included measures of the following health beliefs:
Health motivation: the subjects were asked whether they engaged in a list of five
health-related activities (e.g. take physical exercise, reduce alcohol consumption).
Cancer knowledge: the subjects were asked open-ended questions about their
knowledge of the early warning signs of breast and cervical cancer.218 HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY