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Patients’ Knowledge of Prenatal Screening for Trisomy 21
Author(s) -
Sheinis Michal,
Bensimon Kira,
Selk Amanda
Publication year - 2018
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/s10897-017-0126-3
Subject(s) - trisomy , medicine , family medicine , health literacy , demographics , prenatal screening , genetic counseling , test (biology) , literacy , down syndrome , cross sectional study , informed consent , health care , prenatal diagnosis , pregnancy , alternative medicine , psychology , psychiatry , demography , fetus , pathology , paleontology , pedagogy , genetics , sociology , economics , biology , economic growth
This study's objective was to assess the knowledge of prenatal screening for Trisomy 21 in pregnant women in one institution in Canada. A cross‐sectional survey measuring demographics, knowledge of screening, and health literacy, was administered to pregnant women. Of the 135 women who completed the survey, 74% had adequate knowledge of Trisomy 21 and associated screening procedures. Twenty‐eight point one percent of women did not receive any counseling. Overall, 29.5% of women did not know that the screening test was optional and 10.2% of women underwent screening prior to having been counseled. Multigravidity (p < 0.05) and prior counseling (p < 0.001) were positively correlated with knowledge while first language other than English (p < 0.001) was negatively correlated with knowledge. Given these findings, an effort needs to be made on the part of health care providers to increase counseling rates to 100%, stressing the optional nature of the test to attain true informed consent.