Effect of Shared Decision-Making on Anxiety of Women Recommended For Prenatal Screening Tests in Southeast of Iran

Objective: to study the effect of shared decision-making (sdm) on the anxiety of women who were recommended for prenatal screening tests. materials and methods: 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. results: 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). conclusion: 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.