Down syndrome screening: what do health professionals know?

To assess the level of knowledge about Down syndrome screening among a sample of health professionals providing antenatal care.

A structured questionnaire-based survey.

Health professionals allied to a tertiary level maternity hospital in metropolitan Melbourne.

A self-administered questionnaire was given or posted to 166 health care providers to assess their knowledge of prenatal Down syndrome screening.

A total of 140 completed surveys were returned (83% response rate), including 70 from general practitioners, 34 from midwives, 33 from obstetricians and three from geneticists. Of these, 130 confirmed that they regularly counsel women about prenatal screening for Down syndrome. Sixteen per cent of those indicated that they only offered testing to selected 'high risk' women rather than all women. Overall, there was a high level of awareness regarding the gestations at which the commonly used screening tests are offered but a poor appreciation of the relative performances of those tests. Seventy-eight (60%) of those counselling indicated that they discussed detection and screen positive rates specific for the age of the woman. However, less than 10% were able to provide those rates.

Knowledge of Down syndrome screening was variable among those who regularly counsel women about these tests. The results of the present survey highlight the need for professional education about prenatal screening.