IntroductionBirth defects seriously affect children's survival and quality of life and bring great suffering and financial burden to children and their families. Down's syndrome is one of the most common birth defects. Compared with traditional serological screening methods, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT) has higher sensitivity and specificity in the screening of Down's syndrome. In April 2017, the People's Government of Fuyang City, Anhui Province launched a NIPT free screening program. From the perspective of the beneficiary, this research investigated the awareness, willingness to pay and satisfaction of pregnant women in Fuyang City, Anhui Province, to better improve the use of NIPT.MethodsA questionnaire survey was conducted on 1,221 pregnant women who experienced this program in Fuyang City, Anhui Province. Multivariate ordered logistic regression models were established to analyze the factors affecting the satisfaction of NIPT.ResultsA total of 1,217 valid questionnaires were collected. Research indicated 82.5 percent knew about NIPT and 81.9 percent were willing to pay personally when its price was CNY 800 (USD 113.88) per test among pregnant women. The satisfaction of pregnant women with NIPT showed that the waiting time for test results was relatively low (4.5 out of 5 points) compared with other aspects of satisfaction. The higher the education level of the pregnant women, the lower their satisfaction with NIPT.ConclusionsIt is necessary to pay attention to the characteristics of education and to improve the awareness and satisfaction of NIPT among pregnant women. Meanwhile, if it is affordable enough for NIPT services to be provided by the government, this mode should be promoted. In conjunction with the willingness to pay of pregnant women, NIPT payment methods should be developed appropriately.
Effect of non-invasive prenatal testing as a contingent approach on the indications for invasive prenatal diagnosis and prenatal detection rate of Down's syndrome
