Effect of Shared Decision-making on Anxiety of Women Recommended for Prenatal Screening Tests in Southeast of Iran

To study the effect of shared decision-making (SDM) on the anxiety of women who were recommended for prenatal screening tests.

This quasi-experimental study was conducted on a total of 200 pregnant women who referred to the health centers of Zahedan, Iran, for prenatal care within April 7 to September 7, 2019. The control group received routine care, and the intervention group attended a session based on SDM. The demographic characteristics form and Spielberger Six-item State-Trait Anxiety Inventory were filled out before and immediately after the counseling, as well as before receiving the results of maternal serum biochemical markers.

No statistically significant effect of SDM on anxiety was reported between the control and intervention groups immediately after the counseling session (P=0.46). However, the obtained data showed that the mean value of anxiety scores (16.52±3.06) was higher among the women in the intervention group than that reported for the control group (13.80±3.55) on the day before receiving the results of the blood tests (P<0.001). Nevertheless, logistic regression analysis showed only women with a university level of education were likely to have higher anxiety scores than women with lower educational levels (AOR=10.60; 95% CI: 2.07-54.24; P=0.005).

Offering prenatal screening can cause a slight increase in the level of anxiety among women with a university level of education. Therefore, it is required to implement supportive strategies to help high-risk pregnant women in coping with anxiety.