Determinations of low breast screening uptake using geographically weighted regression model

In recent years, the overall breast screening uptake rate in South West London is lower than national average figure. It is well acknowledged that population turnover, minutes for travel time to screening units, deprivation and culture factors impact on breast screening uptake from previous research. This paper focuses on the relationship between breast screening uptake and its determinant factors: Index of Multiple Deprivation score in 2007, percentage of African and Muslim, minutes for travel time to nearest breast screening unit in South West London through a traditional global model. Moreover, using a local regression model, Geographically Weighted Regression explores the specific reasons of the low figures of breast screening uptake and examines the most significant variables in each lower supper output area. The Geographically Weighted Regression model is used in testing the spatial dependency and spatial non-stationary of each variable, which reveals the influence across the region uniform or variable.