Awareness, Expectations, and Perception of Anomaly Ultrasound Scan Among Pregnant Women in a Northern México Population

A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two prenatal diagnostic centers located in Monterrey, Nuevo León, México. One was a university prenatal diagnostic center and the other a private one. The centers were purposively selected to represent different characteristics of the level of care and demographic characteristics. The research instrument was a 26-item questionnaire divided into three sections. The first section contained 12 questions designed to assess women's ideas about the purpose and limitations of the scan (yes/no). The second was on expectations before the scan while the third dealt on women´s perception of the fetus during the ultrasound examination. All women attending for a mid-trimester anomaly scan were invited to fill out the first two parts of a pretested structured questionnaire before the scan and after the ultrasound examination, the third part of the questionnaire concerning their experience of the scan session was completed and collected.

Additionally, the questionnaire included demographic questions (age, parity, educational level, marital status). The source of the questionnaire items was interviews with experts.

Ethical approval for this study was obtained from the Institutional review board. The anomaly scan was performed by fetal-maternal specialists between 18 and 24.6-week gestation.

All data were recorded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 22.0 (SPSS Inc, Illinois, USA). Descriptive statistics were used for the sociodemographic data. Categorical variables were compared using the chi-square test or Fisher exact test. Univariate and multivariate regression analyses were performed to delineate the factors associated with a higher knowledge level. A p-value <0.05 was considered statistically significant.