title: The effects of ethnicity, education and an informational video on pregnant women's knowledge and decisions about a prenatal diagnostic screening test.
abstract: Prenatal screening for genetic disease and developmental disabilities is rapidly becoming a routine part of the management of low-risk pregnancies. Yet research on how to best inform pregnant women about these tests and their special ethical entailments remains sparse. We asked 130 low-risk pregnant women of diverse ethnic and social class backgrounds a series of questions about a prenatal test they had been offered within the previous 3 months. All had been given an informational booklet about the test at the time it was offered; about half also saw a video. We found that neither group of women retained much of the information they had received about the prenatal screening but that those who saw the video remembered more. Information-retention also varied significantly by ethnicity and level of education.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles 90095-1759, USA.
authors.forename: C H
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Browner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Preloran
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Press
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002140:California; D005060:Europe / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D017058:Mexican Americans; D008800:Mexico / Q000208:ethnology; D009035:Mothers / Q000193:education* / Q000523:psychology; D010174:Pamphlets; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D014743:Videotape Recording