Patient physical characteristics and primary care physician decision making in preconception genetic screening

There has been growing emphasis on preconception care as a strategy to improve maternal and child health since the 1980s. Increasingly, development of genetic tests will require primary care providers to make decisions about preconception genetic screening. Limited research has been conducted on how primary care providers interpret patients' characteristics and use constructs, such as ethnicity and race, to decide whom to offer preconception genetic screening.

This report assessed the influence of patient characteristics on decisions to offer preconception genetic screening.

A web-based survey of family physicians was conducted. Physicians reviewed a clinical vignette that was accompanied by a picture of either a black or a white patient. Physicians indicated whether they would offer genetic screening, and if yes, what tests they would offer and what factors influenced their decisions.

The majority (69.2%) of physicians reported that they would not offer genetic screening. Respondents who reviewed the vignette accompanied by a picture of the black patient were more likely to offer screening (35% vs. 26%, p = 0.0034) and rated race as more important to their decision to offer testing than those who viewed the picture of the white patient (76% vs. 49%, p < 0.0001).

Our findings suggest that patient race is important to physicians when making decisions about preconception genetic testing and that decision making is influenced by patients' physical characteristics. The reticence of physicians in this sample to offer preconception screening is an important finding for public health and clinical practice.