Factors influencing choice of prenatal genetic screening by Israeli women identified.

2003 SEP 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Factors influencing Israeli women's decisions to undergo prenatal genetic screening have been identified.

"The number of prenatal genetic tests that are being offered to women is constantly increasing," scientists in Israel noted. "However, there is little national data as to who is performing the tests and the reasons for doing or not doing so."

To rectify this, C. Sher and colleagues at the Asaf Harofeh Medical Center in Zerifin "evaluated the proportion of Jewish women in Israel who perform the various prenatal genetic tests and the factors affecting the performance of these tests."

The results revealed that "60.9% of the women performed the triple test, 50.8% of women older than 35 years performed amniocentesis, while 63.3% and 24.3% of women performed Tay-Sachs and fragile-X carrier testing respectively," they said. "Ninety-six percent of the secular women compared to only 6.7% of the ultrareligious women performed the triple test."

"It was also found that 94.4% of the secular women, 36.4% of the religious, and none of the ultrareligious women older than 35 years performed amniocentesis," according to the report. "In the stepwise regression analysis, being secular, having a higher income, fewer children, and being of Ashkenazi origin remained significant factors in determining performance of Tay-Sachs carrier testing. As regards fragile-X carrier testing, being secular, having fewer than four children, and having a higher income and a supplementary medical insurance remained ...