Lay persons' understanding of the risk of Down's Syndrome in genetic counselling

Genetic counselling traditionally expresses risk in proportions (e.g. 1 in 112) rather than as rates (e.g., 8.9 per 1,000). The justification for this practice is unclear. To assess the understanding of lay persons of the risk of Down's Syndrome, whether expressed as rates or as proportions, we...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:BJOG : an international journal of obstetrics and gynaecology 2001-06, Vol.108 (6), p.649-650
Main Authors: VAN VLIET, Hubertus A. A. M, GRIMES, David A, POPKIN, Benjamin, SMITH, Ursula
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Awareness
Biological and medical sciences
Down Syndrome - genetics
Female
General aspects. Genetic counseling
Genetic Counseling - psychology
Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice
Humans
Male
Medical genetics
Medical sciences
Risk Factors
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Genetic counselling traditionally expresses risk in proportions (e.g. 1 in 112) rather than as rates (e.g., 8.9 per 1,000). The justification for this practice is unclear. To assess the understanding of lay persons of the risk of Down's Syndrome, whether expressed as rates or as proportions, we analysed 589 self-administered questionnaires. Overall, respondents understood rates significantly better than proportions (76.2% vs 72.3% correct, respectively; P = 0.03) Evidence from two studies in disparate populations suggests that rates are better understood and thus are the preferred way to explain genetic risk to lay persons.
ISSN:1470-0328
1471-0528
DOI:10.1016/S0306-5456(00)00151-0