Racial‐Ethnic Differences in Genetic Amniocentesis Uptake

Abstract

The objective of this study was to determine the role of health beliefs in genetic amniocentesis acceptance in a diverse racial-ethnic population. Participants completed a previously-validated questionnaire consisting of three sections: (1) demographics, (2) amniocentesis knowledge, and (3) health beliefs, which assessed perceived susceptibility, seriousness of potential impact, benefits of testing, and barriers to testing. The results showed that Hispanic women were less likely to accept amniocentesis (51.5% vs. Caucasian 82.8%, African American 82.9%, Asian 82.8%). Education level was the only demographic factor higher among acceptors. Women who accepted amniocentesis had higher perceived seriousness, susceptibility, and benefits HBM scores and higher knowledge scores than women who declined. HBM scores and knowledge predicted the amniocentesis decision correctly 91.5% of the time. Individual health beliefs and knowledge play a greater role in genetic amniocentesis acceptance than do demographic factors such as race-ethnicity.

Knowledge and Attitudes towards Prenatal Diagnostic Procedures among Pregnant Women in Greece

“…Therefore, this study confirms the importance of nationality, education and socioeconomic status as predictors of adequate knowledge of prenatal diagnostic procedures as has been shown in previous studies [11,19,28,29] . Our results also indicate that women from minority ethnic groups and low socioeconomical status did not have negative attitudes towards genetic testing, but rather lower rates of informed choice, as has been previously reported [14,30,31] . It is noteworthy that among the 354 women who were interviewed, 252 (71.2%) were already aware of amniocentesis or CVS before the present gestation via friends, TV/press or due to family history.…”

Patient preferences for prenatal testing of microdeletion and microduplication syndromes

“…Higher education levels, being of Asian ethnicity, having a history of infertility, and previous uptake of CVS or amniocentesis were significantly associated with increased likelihood to elect at least one invasive diagnostic prenatal test. This is consistent with previous studies that found higher uptake of invasive testing amongst women who had higher education levels 18,20 or were of Asian or Caucasian ethnicity. [18][19][20][21] On the other hand, lower education levels and being of Hispanic, Asian Indian, or mixed ethnicity were associated with choosing no testing for all conditions, a finding that is also consistent with previous studies.…”

“…This is consistent with previous studies that found higher uptake of invasive testing amongst women who had higher education levels 18,20 or were of Asian or Caucasian ethnicity. [18][19][20][21] On the other hand, lower education levels and being of Hispanic, Asian Indian, or mixed ethnicity were associated with choosing no testing for all conditions, a finding that is also consistent with previous studies. [18][19][20][21] Prior personal experience with prenatal screening or testing played an important role in the decision to obtain information regarding microdeletion and microduplication syndromes.…”

Psychosocial factors affecting uptake of prenatal genetic testing: a pilot study

“…Available researches on the determinants of PGTs have looked at (1) the attitudes of women and their partners, [7][8][9][10][11][12] (2) religious beliefs and women's attitudes towards termination of pregnancy, [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] and (3) women's racial-ethnic background. [32][33][34][35][36] From a cohort study of Italian women at risk because of advanced maternal age, the key determinant factor which influenced choice regarding amniocentesis was the preexisting view that the women had towards such a procedure. After receiving abnormal ultrasound findings, it was observed that women in favour of amniocentesis were more likely to ask for the test than women showing a negative attitude towards this practice.…”