Awareness of prenatal screening for fetal aneuploidy among pregnant women in Greece.

AIM To estimate the level of awareness of prenatal screening (PS) and explore the underlying demographic, lifestyle and medical history parameters of Greek and non-Greek pregnant women undergoing prenatal diagnosis. PATIENTS AND METHODS A structured questionnaire was answered by 354 women at the time of receiving the results of invasive prenatal testing. Summary statistics and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS Adequate knowledge of the effectiveness of PS tests was reported by 50.8% of women. Popular press reading was associated with more than 2-fold higher level of awareness [odds ratio (OR)=0.51, p=0.0004]. Inadequate awareness was recorded among pregnant women of non-Greek nationality (OR=2.07, p=0.04), as well as among those also unaware of the effects of smoking during pregnancy (OR=2.39, p=0.004). CONCLUSION Pre-gestational prenatal counseling is essential in order to improve knowledge and attitudes of women towards PS and reduce the health gap between different cultural and social groups.