Relationship between Informed Choice of Pregnant Women about Screening of Fetal Anomalies with Worry and Anxiety

The purpose of the screening of fetal anomalies in pregnancy is empowering women to make an informed choice and reduce uncertainty in decision making. On the other hand, screening may cause worry and anxiety in pregnant women. This study was conducted with aim to determine the relationship between informed choice in pregnant women about screening of fetal anomalies with worry and anxiety.
This cross sectional study was conducted on 160 pregnant women who referred to the health care centers of Mashhad in 2014. Data collection tool was the questionnaire of individual-pregnancy information, Informed choice, Cambridge worry and Spielberger anxiety inventory. Data was analyzed using statistical software SPSS (version 16) and Chi-square test, Spearman correlation coefficient and logistic regression. P
From total of 160 pregnant women participating in the study, 85.6% (n=137) had an informed choice about screening tests, and 14.4% (n=23) had uninformed choice. . Based on the logistic regression analysis, no statistically significant relationship was observed between worry (P=0.44), state (P=0.43) and trait (P=0.92) anxiety with informed choice of pregnant women.
The process of informed choice is a very important part of screening of fetal anomalies in pregnancy; therefore practitioners and midwives must ensure that pregnant women had informed choice for these tests, so that their choose had the highest level of satisfaction and the lowest amount of anxiety.