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Women's preferences in screening for Down syndrome.
Mark Deverill1, Stephen Robson
1Centre for Health Services Research, School of Population and Health Sciences University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK. mark.deverill@ncl.ac.uk
Prenatal Diagnosis
|July 18, 2006
Summary
Women value reassurance of a healthy fetus equally, regardless of screening timing. However, a false negative Down syndrome screening test significantly lowers utility, impacting decisions about termination.
Area of Science:
- Reproductive Health
- Medical Decision Making
- Genetics
Background:
- Prenatal screening for Down syndrome is crucial for informed reproductive choices.
- Understanding patient preferences is vital for optimizing screening programs.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine women's utility values for various first- and second-trimester Down syndrome screening scenarios.
- To assess preferences related to screening timing and outcomes.
Main Methods:
- Employed the standard gamble (SG) approach with 100 pregnant women.
- Utilized a choice-based technique to elicit utility values on a 0-1 scale.
Main Results:
- True negative screening tests (first or second trimester) yielded the highest utility (0.98).
- False positive results with healthy births had high utility (0.95-0.94).
- False negative results leading to a Down syndrome birth had significantly lower utility (0.77).
Conclusions:
- No significant difference in utility was found for the timing of a healthy fetus diagnosis.
- Timing did not influence the value placed on early versus later termination for a Down syndrome diagnosis.