Predicting uptake of a routine cervical smear test: A comparison of the health belief model and the theory of planned behaviour

This paper reports on a study carried out to identify predictors of uptake of cervical screening among 142 women (59% response rate) in inner London. Two social cognition models were used: The Health Belief Model (HBM; Becker, 1974) and the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB; Ajzen, 1991) and in addition anticipated affect following non-attendance for screening was assessed. The TPB emerged as by far the superior model for predicting screening intentions, explaining 51% of the variance in comparison with only 4% explained by the HEM variables. However, neither model was able to predict a significant amount of variance in uptake of screening three months later, Possible reasons for the poor prediction of this type of behaviour are discussed.