Pregnancy outcome following prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal anomaly | Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory

Pregnancy outcome following prenatal diagnosis of chromosomal anomaly - a record linkage study of 26,261 pregnancies

Multimorbidity | Last Updated: 23 Mar 26

Background

Previous studies have demonstrated the influence of changes in the age at which women give birth, and of developments in prenatal screening and diagnosis on the number of pregnancies diagnosed and terminated with chromosomal anomalies. However, we are unaware of any population studies examining pregnancy terminations after diagnosis of chromosomal anomalies that has included all aneuploidies and the influence of maternal factors. The aims of this study were to examine the association between results of prenatal tests and pregnancy termination, and the proportion of foetuses with and without chromosomal anomalies referred for invasive diagnostic tests over time.

What we did

Diagnostic information of 26,261 prenatal invasive tests from all genetic service laboratories in Scotland from 2000 to 2011 was linked to Scottish Morbidity Records to obtain details on pregnancy outcome. Binary logistic regression was carried out to test the associations of year and type of diagnosis with pregnancy termination, while controlling for maternal age, neighbourhood deprivation and parity.

What we found

Systematic advances in prenatal screening have improved detection rates for aneuploidy. This has been accompanied by a reduction in the rate of termination for aneuploidy. This may reflect societal changes with acceptance of greater diversity, but further research would be needed to test this.

You can read the published findings in PLOS one via this link

Project information last updated in May 2018.

SLDO Group member(s) involved in this research

Professor Anna Cooper

Anna set up the Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory with funding from the Scottish Government. She wants the Observatory to make Scotland fairer and healthier for people with learning disabilities and their families, by: Finding out the health problems people have Finding out how good or bad health care is Telling people about health and health care problems Finding ways to make health and health care better Checking if health gets better or worse over time Helping the Scottish Government, and staff who provide health and social services, to get it right for people with learning disabilities Anna is a doctor. She has done a lot of studies on the health of people with learning disabilities. Anna’s full name is Professor Sally-Ann Cooper.

Professor Jill Pell

The Scottish Learning Disabilities Observatory is based in the School of Health and Wellbeing at Glasgow University; Professor Jill Pell was formerly Director of the School. She is an expert in Public Health. Jill also has another role as Honorary Consultant in Public Health in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. Jill’s main research interests are in: Long term conditions like diabetes Maternal and child health Obesity Smoking A lot of her research draws on different administrative data and uses data linkage methods to help answer important public health questions. For example, Jill is leading research which will help to understand the different things associated with additional educational support needs.