Women's knowledge of prenatal screening tests. 1: Relationships with hospital screening policy and demographic factors

Abstract

Screening for fetal abnormalities has become a major part of routine antenatal care, but previous research suggests that women are not always well-informed about the tests that they undergo. Building on the knowledge questionnaire developed by Marteau e t al (1988), we explored the knowledge of approximately 1200 pregnant women, booked for care at nine different hospitals, in relation to hospital screening policy and demographic factors. The same questions were asked pre-booking and at 22 weeks. Knowledge increased substantially between these two occasions but results from a control group indicated that the increase in knowledge did not result from our having asked the questions at the time of the first questionnaire. Age, education, parity and hospital policy were all found to be strongly related to women's knowledge scores, although hospital differences were spa& to questions related to alpha-fetoprotein testing. Hospital differences were apparent before the first hospital visit, both for multiparous and primiparous women, and possible reasons for this are discussed.