Feasibility of screening patients for emotional risk factors before in vitro fertilization in daily clinical practice: a process evaluation

main results and the role of chance: The uptake rate of SCREENIVF was 78–80%. One-third of the responders were found to be at risk for emotional maladjustment, which was comparable with previous studies using SCREENIVF. Of 27 non-responders to SCREENIVF, 41% explained non-response by ‘no actual need for psychological help’ and 19% forgot to complete the screening. The response rate to the process evaluation was 43% (n ¼ 91). Of these, 90% found the screening was useful, and almost all patients were positive about the SCREENIVF questionnaire. Furthermore, 93% recognized themselves in the risk profile based on SCREENIVF. Of the patients at risk, 21% reported planning to seek professional help, but 46% of the at-risk patients experienced travelling distance as an obstacle to seek psychological help. We concluded that screening patient sf or emotional risk factors is feasible. In future, psychosocial care offered by the Internet may be promising in meeting the barrier of travelling distance. limitations, reasons for caution: People were asked to fill in SCREENIVF for clinical purposes pretreatment. There might be a selection bias in the people who did not fill in SCREENIVF, which may be due to already existing psychological problems or language problems. The low response rate of the process evaluation questionnaire and the mono-centre evaluation may be confounders and may have influenced our analysis opportunities. wider implications of the findings: The generalizability of this data is unknown with respect to other ethnic groups. Furthermore, more research is needed to evaluate psychosocial factors in male partners. Future research should also focus on the barriers and facilitators for helpseeking behaviour.