Health-care providers' knowledge about prenatal screening: A study in the North of Iran

Background:Prenatal screening for birth defects is turning into a main component of prenatal care. The success of prenatal screening programs greatly depends on health-care providers' knowledge about it. Objectives: This study aimed to assess health-care providers' knowledge about prenatal screening. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted on June-October 2016 in Sari, a large city in the North of Iran. A sample of 472 obstetricians, general physicians, and midwives was recruited through quota and convenience sampling. Data on participants' knowledge about prenatal screening were collected through a 35-item self-administered knowledge questionnaire which contained the four domains of time, technique, legal issues, and follow-up assessment. The total score of the questionnaire could range from 0 to 35, with higher scores representing greater knowledge. Descriptive statistics measures, Mann-Whitney U-test and Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman's correlation analysis, and multiple linear regression were used to analyze the data. Results: The mean score of participants' knowledge about prenatal screening was 18.34 ± 9.34. The lowest and the highest mean scores of knowledge were obtained by obstetricians and general physicians, respectively (P < 0.001). The number of participants who correctly answered more than half of the questions of the knowledge questionnaire was 266 (56.35) for the time domain, 259 (54.87) for the technique domain, 237 (50.21) for the legal issues domain, and 200 (42.37) for the follow-up assessment domain. Regression analysis revealed that the significant predictors of prenatal screening knowledge were participants' profession, employment setting, and history of providing screening-related counseling (R2 = 0.515; P< 0.001). Conclusion: Health-care providers have limited knowledge about prenatal screening. Thus, well-designed need-based educational interventions are needed to fulfill their educational needs and advance their knowledge about prenatal screening.