title: Offer and uptake of prenatal screening for Down syndrome in women from different social and ethnic backgrounds.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare offer and uptake of prenatal screening for Down syndrome in women from different social and ethnic backgrounds.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 4800 randomly selected women in England were sent a survey three months after they had given birth; 2960 women responded. Odds ratios (OR) for reported offer and uptake of screening comparing women by area deprivation and ethnicity were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In all, 65% of women reported having screening; 89% reported being offered screening, and 69% of these reported taking up the offer. There was no evidence of a difference in the reported offer (adjusted OR = 0.88, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.65-1.19, p = 0.41) or uptake (adjusted OR = 0.84, 95% CI 0.66-1.06, p = 0.15) of screening for women living in the most deprived areas compared with other women. Asian women were less likely to report being offered screening than White women (adjusted OR = 0.61, 95% CI 0.39-0.94, p = 0.02) and were less likely to take up screening when offered (adjusted OR = 0.48, 95% CI 0.33-0.72, p < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While most pregnant women in England are offered prenatal screening for Down syndrome, approximately 1 in 10 is not. Asian women are less likely than White women to report being offered Down syndrome screening and are less likely to have a screening test when offered.
authors.affiliation: National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, UK. rachel.rowe@npeu.ox.ac.uk
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rowe
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Puddicombe
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Hockley
authors.forename: Maggie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Redshaw
mesh_terms: D004314:Down Syndrome / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000208:ethnology; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom