Obstetricians' attitudes toward genetic screening

L. Gordis, B. Childs and M.G. Roseman

American Journal of Public Health, 1977, vol. 67, issue 5, 469-471

Abstract: The findings in this study demonstrate that physicians' attitudes are closely related to their management of at-risk patients in regard to referral for genetic screening. Fewer of the obstetricians who did not refer patients were board certified than those who did, and almost one-third had a primary affiliation with a non-teaching hospital suggesting that appropriate educational efforts might be effective in altering the referral patterns of these obstetricians. This educational need has been emphasized by others. It is interesting that even among those opposing abortion 41 percent favoured screening for genetically determined diseases. It thus appears that obstetricians favoring genetic screening see a variety of potential benefits to the screened subjects such as genetic counseling both preconceptually and prenatally. They do not see abortion as the sole consequence of the positive identification of Tay-Sachs status. The finding that almost 40 per cent of obstetricians who have patients to refer for Tay-Sachs screening favour a legal requirement for the service, regardless of whether or not they themselves had referred patients for screening, is particularly striking in view of the tendency of the medical profession to express concern about government regulation.

Date: 1977
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:1977:67:5:469-471_2

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().