Colposcopy attendance and deprivation: A retrospective analysis of 27 193 women in the NHS Cervical Screening Programme

BACKGROUND: Attendance for cervical screening is socially graded, but little is known about patterns of attendance for colposcopy following an abnormal screening result. METHODS: Logistic regression was used to regress colposcopy attendance status for 27 193 women against age and area-level deprivation, adjusting for ethnicity. RESULTS: Colposcopy attendance was high at 8 weeks (89%) and 4 months post-referral (94%) but women living in the most deprived areas were significantly less likely to attend. CONCLUSIONS: The high overall attendance rates at colposcopy are encouraging but lower attendance among women in the most income-deprived areas indicates that even when these women attend primary cervical screening, they remain at higher risk of missing out on the benefits of the programme.