Intention to attend a health screening appointment: Some implications for general practice

The general practice response to the problem of coronary heart disease has been the implementation of cohort screening programmes to record known risk factors. Recent research, which has been guided by the Health Belief Model, has attempted to identify the predictors of attendance in these programmes. The importance of intention to attend as a mediating variable between health beliefs and attendance behaviour and the need to identify its determinants have been emphasised.

In order to determine the predictors of intention, questionnaires were sent to patients of a single health centre. Correlational and regression analyses showed general health beliefs to be poor predictors of intention; instead predicting variables revolved around perceptions of the efficacy of screening, worries and concerns about the actual screening appointment, and perceived susceptibility to common illnesses. These findings point to the need for those who plan cohort screening programmes to emphasise the efficacy of screening and to seriously address the potential worries and concerns of patients.