Prenatal XXXX tests. Routine testing or informed choice?

@entity1 @entity645
OBJECTIVE: To examine how prenatal care providers responded to a new provincial policy of offering @entity645 testing to all prenatal @entity1 , and to determine factors associated with self-reported high testing rates. DESIGN: Cross-sectional mailed survey. SETTING: Outpatient practices in three Ontario health-planning regions. @entity1 : Prenatal care providers: 784 family physicians, 200 obstetricians, and 103 midwives were sent questionnaires and were eligible to participate. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Self-reported testing of 80% or more prenatal @entity1 ("high testers") and associated practice characteristics, attitudes, and counseling practices. RESULTS: Response rate was 57% (622/1087): 43% of respondents were high testers. Family physicians were most likely and midwives least likely to be high testers. High testers tended to report that they had adequate knowledge of @entity645 testing, that @entity645 risk among their @entity1 warranted testing all of them, and that testing should be routine. Encouraging @entity1 to test and not providing written information or choice were independently associated with high testing rates. CONCLUSION: Strongest predictors of high prenatal @entity645 testing rates were attitudes and practices that favoured a routine approach to testing and that placed little emphasis on informed consent.
