Interventions in Genetic Counseling

在SBRB的遗传服务研究单位下，对遗传咨询干预措施进行了研究，这些干预措施可以改善实践或实现理想的结果。这项研究的一个途径是致力于产前遗传咨询的问题。一项研究试图估计在接受产前遗传咨询的妇女中进行诊断测试的矛盾心理的普遍程度，以及这种矛盾心理的预测因素和决定性后果。在6个不同的美国产前诊所接受遗传咨询的妇女携带21三体胎儿的风险增加[N=240]被要求在三种情况下完成一份问卷：咨询之前；咨询后立即，之后通过电话。这些数据将用于描述基于母亲年龄或筛查测试结果而进行产前咨询的美国妇女样本对产前测试的矛盾程度，并可能从旨在提高决策质量的干预措施中受益。

Under the Genetics Services Research Unit of the SBRB, research is conducted into genetic counseling interventions that may improve practice or the achievement of desirable outcomes. One avenue of this research is devoted to questions in prenatal genetic counseling. One study seeks to estimate the prevalence of ambivalence about undergoing diagnostic testing among women referred for prenatal genetic counseling, and the predictors and decisional consequences of such ambivalence. Women seen at six different U.S. prenatal clinics for genetic counseling at increased risk for carrying a fetus with trisomy 21 [N=240] are being asked to complete a questionnaire on three occasions: prior to counseling; immediately after counseling, and later by telephone. These data will be used to describe the extent to which a sample of U.S. women referred for prenatal counseling based upon maternal age or results of a screening test are ambivalent about prenatal testing and might benefit from interventions aimed at improving the quality of decision-making. While the overall goal of this study is to determine the extent to which women attending a prenatal genetics clinic appointment for genetic counseling are ambivalent toward undergoing prenatal diagnostic testing (amniocentesis or chorionic villus sampling), the specific study aims are: 1. To describe women?s attitudes toward prenatal testing, including the extent to which they hold ambivalent thoughts or feelings toward undergoing testing. 2. To examine predictors of ambivalence. 3. To determine the relationship between ambivalence, attitudes, intentions to undergo prenatal testing, test choice, and quality of the decision. A second study being conducted by a genetic counseling graduate student is similarly looking at the construct of ambivalence towards prenatal diagnostic testing and its origins. In-depth interviews are being conducte with pregnant women referred for prenatal diagnosis education and counseling.