Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2021 Jan 13;8(1):2055102920987455.
doi: 10.1177/2055102920987455. eCollection 2021 Jan-Jun.

Decision-making factors in prenatal testing: A systematic review

Affiliations
Review

Decision-making factors in prenatal testing: A systematic review

Valentina Di Mattei et al. Health Psychol Open. .

Abstract

This review examines the factors that affect the decision-making process of parental couples evaluating prenatal screening and diagnostic tests. A systematic search was performed using PubMed and PsycInfo databases. The 46 included studies had to: investigate the decision-making process about prenatal testing; focus on tests detecting trisomy 21, 18, 13, and abnormalities of sex chromosomes; be published in English peer-reviewed journals. The decision-making process seems composed of different levels: an individual level with demographic, clinical, and psychological aspects; a contextual level related to the technical features of the test and the information received; a relational level involving family and society.

Keywords: clinical health psychology; genetic testing; health care; pregnancy; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Study selection.

References

    1. Ahmed S, Atkin K, Hewison J, et al. (2006. a) The influence of faith and religion and the role of religious and community leaders in prenatal decisions for sickle cell disorders and thalassaemia major. Prenatal Diagnosis 26(9): 801–809. - PubMed
    1. Ahmed S, Green JM, Hewison J. (2006. b) Attitudes toward prenatal diagnosis and termination of pregnancy for thalassaemia in pregnant Pakistani women in the North of England. Prenatal Diagnosis 26(3): 248–257. - PubMed
    1. Akolekar R, Beta J, Picciarelli G, et al. (2015) Procedure-related risk of miscarriage following amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Ultrasound in Obstetrics & Gynecology 45(1): 16–26. - PubMed
    1. Alfirevic Z, Navaratnam K, Mujezinovic F. (2017) Amniocentesis and chorionic villus sampling for prenatal diagnosis. Cochrane Database of Systematic Review 9(9): CD003252. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Bangsgaard L, Tabor A. (2013) Do pregnant women and their partners make an informed choice about first trimester risk assessment for Down syndrome, and are they satisfied with the choice? Prenatal Diagnosis 33(2): 146–152. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources