Swedish parents’ interest in preconception genetic carrier screening

Figures & data

Table 1. Background characteristics among women (n = 777) and male partners (n = 777). Categorical data are presented as frequencies and percentages, n (%), and continuous data are presented as means, standard deviations (SD), and range.

	Women		Male partners
Variable	n	Value	n	Value
Mean age (years)	759	29.78	775	35.30
SD		4.639		5.584
Range		17–47		16–58
Household income (≤39,999/>40,000 SEK/month), n (%)	751	478/273 (63.6/36.4)	770	439/331 (56.5/42.6)
Occupation <50%/≥50%, n (%)	777	307/470 (39.5/60.5)	777	140/637 (18.0/82.0)
Education	766		775
No completed education/elementary school, n (%)		23 (3.0)		33 (4.3)
High school/vocational education, n (%)		285 (37.2)		401 (51.7)
University/college, n (%)		458 (59.8)		341 (44.0)
Born outside Sweden, n (%)	773	66 (8.5)	772	56 (7.3)
Self-rated health good/poor, n (%)	775	599/176 (77.3/22.7)	773	517/256 (66.9/33.1)
Smoking, yes/no, n (%)	776	32/744 (4.1/95.8)	774	57/717 (7.4/92.7)
Nullipara/multipara, n (%)	510	111/399 (21.8/78.2)		–
Parity	500
1, n (%)		241 (48.2)		–
2–3, n (%)		207 (41.4)		–
≥4, n (%)		52 (10.4)		–
Miscarriage, yes/no, n (%)	769	177/592 (23.0/77.0)		–
IVF, yes/no, n (%)	777	33/744 (4.2/95.8)	777	33/744 (4.2/95.8)
Prenatal diagnostics, yes/no, n (%)	777	314/463 (40.4/59.6)	777	314/463 (40.4/59.6)
Congenital condition (in child born12 months ago), yes/no, n (%)	777	8/769 (1.0/99.0)	777	8/769 (1.0/99.0)
Pregnancy planning	776		775
Unplanned n (%)		156 (20.0)		142 (18.3)
Planned n (%)		620 (80.0)		633 (81.7)
Wanting to know sex of child, yes/no, n (%)	758	375/383 (49.5/50.5)	760	395/365 (52.0/48.0)
Sex selection attitudes	760
Positive, n (%)		34 (4.5)		–
Negative/uncertain, n (%)		726 (95.5)		–
Interest in PCS	777		777
Yes		233 (30)		261 (33.6)
No		198 (25.5)		219 (28.2)
Uncertain		346 (44.5)		297 (38.2)
Want more children, n (%)	776		776
Yes		424 (54.6)		338 (43.6)
No		203 (26.2)		278 (35.8)
Uncertain		149 (19.2)		160 (20.6)

Table 2. Motives for and against PCS, comparison within couples (n = 710).

	Women/male partnersn = 710/710 (%)	McNemarP value
Not wanting (future) child to suffer	364/286 (51.3%/40.3%)	0.000
Exclude the risk of having a child witha severe genetic disorder	321/326 (45.2%/45.9%)	0.811
An act of responsibility	165/194 (23.2%/27.3%)	0.058
Expected by others	4/12 (0.6%/1.7%)	0.057
Opposed to such a way of child selection	226/179 (31.8%/25.2%)	0.002
Not wanting to know/such information	152/155 (21.4%/21.8%)	0.894
Other motives	48/60 (6.8%/8.5%)	0.261

Table 3. Characteristics associated with parents’ interest in PCS—a binary logistic regression analysis (n = 1,554).

Variables	Women (n = 777)			Partners (n = 777)
	OR	95% CI	P value	OR	95% CI	P value
Age	0.95	0.91–0.99	0.04	1.02	0.99–1.05	0.14
Country of birth (Sweden^a/outside Sweden)	1.98	1.08–3.64	0.02	1.22	0.67–2.23	0.51
Education (high^a/low)	1.05	0.71–1.56	0.78	1.18	0.85–1.65	0.31
Household income (high^a/low)	0.77	0.53–1.13	0.18	0.91	0.65–1.27	0.58
Self-rated health (good^a/poor)	1.56	1.04–2.33	0.02	1.50	1.08–2.08	0.01
Pregnancy planning (planned^a/unplanned)	1.02	0.66–1.56	0.92	0.59	0.38–0.91	0.01
Prenatal diagnostics (yes^a/no)	0.57	0.40–0.81	0.00	0.63	0.46–0.87	0.00
Wanting to know sex of child (yes^a/no)	0.56	0.39–0.80	0.00	0.79	0.58–1.09	0.16
Gender selection (positive^a/negative attitude)	0.26	0.12–0.57	0.00
Previous miscarriage (yes^a/no)	0.83	0.55–1.26	0.39

^aReference category.