Table 1. Description of participants (from 527 background questionnaires).
| Sociodemographic characteristics | |||||
| Age (years; n=525) | Median, 40 | Range, 31–55 | |||
| Marital status (n=499) | Married/living with a partner, 79.0% | Single, 7.8% | Divorced/separated, 12.4% | Widowed, 0.8% | |
| Ethnic origin (n=525) | White, 97.7% | Pakistani, 0.2% | Indian, 1.3% | Chinese, 0.2% | Other, 0.6% |
| Age on leaving full-time education (n=526) | 14–16, 39.5% | 16–18, 37.6% | 18–21, 10.6% | 21+, 12.2% | |
| Currently employed (n=524) | Yes, 76.3% | No, 23.7% | |||
| Have children (n=523) | Yes, 85.5% | No, 14.5% | |||
| No of children (n=457) | Median, 2 | Range, 1–7 | |||
| Taking medication | |||||
| Anxiety (n=495) | Yes, 4.6% | No, 95.4% | |||
| Depression (n=505) | Yes, 4.8% | No, 95.2% | |||
| Sleeplessness (n=505) | Yes, 3.6% | No, 96.4% | |||
| Screening experiences | |||||
| Previously had MRI scan (n=519) | Yes, 25.0% | No, 75.0% | |||
| Found previous MRI scan distressing (n=128) | Extremely, 3.9% | Very, 2.3% | Moderately, 6.3% | A little, 14.8% | Not at all, 72.7% |
| Previously had XRM (n=522) | Yes, 82.6% | No, 17.4% | |||
| Found previous XRM scan distressing (n=426) | Extremely, 2.3% | Very, 0.2% | Moderately, 5.6% | A little, 18.3% | Not at all, 73.5% |
| Undertake breast self-examination (BSE; n=522) | Yes, 87.2% | No, 12.8% | |||
| Finds BSE distressing (n=448) | Extremely, 0.9% | Very, 0.4% | Moderately, 4.7% | A little, 10.9% | Not at all, 83.0% |
| Feels confident about BSE (n=456) | Extremely, 3.3% | Very, 13.2% | Moderately, 51.3% | A little, 20.2% | Not at all, 12.1% |
| Has clinical breast examinations (CBE; n=524) | Yes, 90.6% | No, 9.4% | |||
| Finds CBE distressing (n=456) | Extremely, 0.9% | Very, 1.3% | Moderately, 3.9% | A little, 13.2% | No at all, 80.7% |
| Feels confident about doctors’ CBE ability (n=475) | Extremely, 30.7% | Very, 48.2% | Moderately, 18.1% | A little, 1.7% | Not at all, 1.3% |
| Baseline psychological measures | |||||
| Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale | |||||
| Anxiety (n=526) | Mean (s.d.), 6.90 (4.16) | Normal range, 61.8% | Borderline, 18.6% | Clinically significant, 19.6% | |
| Depression (n=526) | Mean (s.d.), 3.49 (3.31) | Normal range, 86.3% | Borderline, 9.7% | Clinically significant, 4.0% | |
| Total distress (n=526) | Mean (s.d.), 10.4 (6.79) | ||||
| Health questionnaire (n=527) | Mean (s.d.), 7.17 (1.83) | ||||
Abbreviations: MRI=magnetic resonance imaging; XRM=X-ray mammography.