Expectation and knowledge of women undergoing first-trimester combined screening for Down syndrome in a Chinese population.

Objectives: To study the preference of pregnant women regarding the time taken to report the results of first-trimester combined screening for Down syndrome and their knowledge about it.

Methods: A questionnaire survey was conducted on a cohort of 325 pregnant participants who attended our first-trimester combined nuchal translucency and biochemical screening programme for fetal Down syndrome. This service was operated in a one-stop setting and the result of the screening test was available within 1 to 2 h after the collection of blood sample.

Results: The majority of participants: (1) could recall the quoted detection rate correctly (96.6%); (2) understood that a negative test does not exclude Down syndrome (91.1%); (3) understood that a positive test does not equate to an affected fetus (91.0%), and (4) could decide on the need for further invasive tests on the basis of the screening test results (98.1%). Twenty-nine percent of participants considered that a one-stop setting was very important because any delay in releasing the results made a significant difference to them, while 48.9% considered it acceptable if the results were available on the same day. The percentage dropped dramatically to 6.3% (within 2 days), 6.7% (within 3 days), 5.7% (within 1 week), and 3.1% (more than 1 week).

Conclusion: The majority of the pregnant women in our test considered same day reporting of screening test results to be no different from a one-stop clinic. This would have important implications for the organisation and structuring of our service provision, since the operation of a one-stop clinic imposes significant stresses on the clinical staff involved.