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A Qualitative Study of Factors Influencing Decision‐Making after Prenatal Diagnosis of down Syndrome
Author(s) -
Reed Amy R.,
Berrier Kathryn L.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of genetic counseling
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.867
H-Index - 52
eISSN - 1573-3599
pISSN - 1059-7700
DOI - 10.1007/s10897-016-0061-8
Subject(s) - expansive , affect (linguistics) , prenatal diagnosis , pregnancy , medicine , qualitative research , cognition , perception , genetic counseling , clinical psychology , psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , social science , fetus , materials science , compressive strength , communication , neuroscience , sociology , biology , composite material , genetics
Previous research has identified twenty‐six factors that may affect pregnancy management decisions following prenatal diagnosis of DS; however, there is no consensus about the relative importance or effects of these factors. In order to better understand patient decision‐making, we conducted expansive cognitive interviews with nine former patients who received a prenatal diagnosis of DS. Our results suggest that patients attached unique meanings to factors influencing decision‐making regardless of the pregnancy outcome. Nineteen of the twenty‐six factors previously studied and four novel factors (rationale for testing, information quality, pregnancy experience, and perception of parenting abilities and goals) were found to be important to decision‐making. We argue that qualitative studies can help characterize the complexity of decision‐making following prenatal diagnosis of DS.