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Stamford Publishing Pte Ltd, Singapore Medical Journal, 6(58), p. 298-310, 2017

DOI: 10.11622/smedj.2016114

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Evaluation of preferences of women and healthcare professionals in Singapore for implementation of noninvasive prenatal testing for Down syndrome

Journal article published in 2016 by An Barrett, Hv Advani, Ls Chitty ORCID, Ll Su, A. Biswas, Wc Tan, M. Hill, M. Choolani
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: policy unknown
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Postprint: policy unknown
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Published version: policy unknown
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Invasive prenatal diagnosis (IPD) has long been used to prenatally diagnose Down syndrome (DS), but is associated with a small risk of miscarriage. Meanwhile, noninvasive prenatal testing (NIPT) is a highly sensitive screening test using cell-free DNA in maternal blood for detection of DS that removes the risk of miscarriage, but confers a small risk of false-positive and false-negative results. Their implementations into clinical practice require an understanding of stakeholder preferences. METHODS: A total of 69 health professionals (HPs) and 301 women took part in a discrete choice experiment (DCE) in which preferences for four prenatal test attributes (accuracy, time of results, risk of miscarriage and amount of information provided) were assessed, and conditional logit regression was used to analyse data. Data on demographics and ranked preferences for test attributes were collected, and a direct choice between NIPT, IPD or neither test was given. RESULTS: Women showed a preference for test safety, whereas HPs prioritised test accuracy above all other attributes. When offered a direct choice between NIPT, IPD or neither test, women aged over 35 years, those with previous miscarriage or who knew a child with DS were more likely to choose NIPT than IPD. Chinese women preferred NIPT whereas Indian women preferred IPD. CONCLUSION: Our data highlight the need for patient-specific counselling, taking into account previous experiences and cultural factors. Since women and HPs prioritise different test attributes, it is essential that HPs recognise these differences in order to provide non-biased counselling.