What was linked to uncertainty about prenatal genetic testing?

Details

Technologies for detecting fetal genetic abnormalities are complex, and prenatal diagnostic testing can have wide-ranging repercussions. The abstract notes that people need to understand the psychosocial and clinical dimensions of testing before they can decide with certainty whether to undergo it.

The researchers tested a model combining psychosocial and clinical factors as predictors of decisional conflict about prenatal genetic testing. In a hypothetical scenario study, 457 adults each read one of four scenarios asking them to imagine expecting a child and considering a prenatal test that could detect a genetic condition. The scenarios varied the condition’s age of onset (birth or adulthood) and whether it was curable (no cure or curable).

Participants completed measures of decisional conflict, perceived benefits of normal results, test response efficacy, condition coherence, child-related worry, perceived disagreement with the other parent’s preference, motivation to comply with doctors’ perceived preferences, and parity.

Greater decisional conflict was predicted by perceiving normal results as beneficial, doubting the test’s reliability, lacking understanding of the genetic condition, worrying about fetal health, perceiving a difference of opinion with a partner or spouse, wanting to follow doctors’ preferences, and being childless.

The authors said the findings are increasingly relevant as new technologies become more available in pregnancy care and could inform communication strategies that help couples make decisions. They concluded that the study offers insight into factors that might complicate prenatal testing decisions.