title: Awareness of prenatal screening for fetal aneuploidy among pregnant women in Greece.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To estimate the level of awareness of prenatal screening (PS) and explore the underlying demographic, lifestyle and medical history parameters of Greek and non-Greek pregnant women undergoing prenatal diagnosis.
  
  
  METHODS
  A structured questionnaire was answered by 354 women at the time of receiving the results of invasive prenatal testing. Summary statistics and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Adequate knowledge of the effectiveness of PS tests was reported by 50.8% of women. Popular press reading was associated with more than 2-fold higher level of awareness [odds ratio (OR)=0.51, p=0.0004]. Inadequate awareness was recorded among pregnant women of non-Greek nationality (OR=2.07, p=0.04), as well as among those also unaware of the effects of smoking during pregnancy (OR=2.39, p=0.004).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Pre-gestational prenatal counseling is essential in order to improve knowledge and attitudes of women towards PS and reduce the health gap between different cultural and social groups.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Medical School, Athens University, Athens, Greece Department of Obstetrics-Gynecology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Karagkiouzis
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics-Gynecology, University Hospital of Heraklion, Heraklion, Greece.
authors.forename: Stavros
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sifakis
authors.affiliation: Department of Genetic Medicine and Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Periklis
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Makrithanasis
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, Athens University, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Nick
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dessypris
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, Medical School, Athens University, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Eleni T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Petridou
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Medical School, Athens University, Athens, Greece skitsiou@med.uoa.gr.
authors.forename: Sofia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kitsiou-Tzeli
authors.affiliation: Department of Medical Genetics, Medical School, Athens University, Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kanavakis
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000782:Aneuploidy; D005260:Female; D006115:Greece; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Prenatal screening; awareness; fetal aneuploidy; genetic counseling