SERUM SCREENING FOR DOWNS-SYNDROME - HOW MUCH DO HEALTH-PROFESSIONALSKNOW

Objective To assess knowledge about serum screening for Down's syndrom e in health professionals involved in antenatal care. Design Postal qu estionnaire survey of knowledge of performance and interpretation of s erum screening. Setting Portsmouth and South East Hampshire health dis trict. Population All health professionals likely to be involved in an tenatal care. Methods Questionnaires were sent to all general practiti oners (n = 288), hospital midwives (n = 129), community midwives (n = 71), and obstetricians (n = 29) working in the district. Main outcome measures Total number of correct responses given to eight factual ques tions and percentage of correct responses to each individual question. Results Responses were received from 434 health professionals (84%). Fifty-nine percent of health professionals correctly answered only a h alf or less of the factual questions on serum screening. Questions rel ating to the sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value w ere particularly poorly answered. Obstetricians scored most highly. Ge neral practitioners scored significantly less than the other groups. C onclusions Women need accurate information to give informed consent to serum screening. Most health professionals likely to be involved in a ntenatal care in this district do not fully understand the test and ar e thus unlikely to provide such information. Changes in the provision of maternity services following Changing Childbirth may increase the i nput of midwives and general practitioners. Training of professionals about serum screening should be reviewed.