Prenatal patients' views of prenatal care services: a medical center-based assessment of knowledge and intent to use support services.

BACKGROUND: Our objective was to ascertain the priority of prenatal support services from the perspective of high-risk patients. The relationship between patients' needs, and both knowledge of and intent to use services, was examined, while documenting factors associated with the intent to use available support services.

METHODS: The authors of this study conducted a cross-sectional survey of 102 African-American women at a university-affiliated, urban-health center. Patients' priority support needs were compared to their knowledge of and intent to use support services using chi-square statistics. Logistic regression was used to determine factors independently associated with patients' intent to use 5 support services (substance abuse counseling, community referrals, health education, nutrition services, and social work services), while adjusting for potential socioeconomic confounding variables, knowledge, and need for services.

RESULTS: Knowledge of existing services was independently associated with patient intent to use one or more support services (odds ratio 3.6; confidence interval 1.4-9.4). With each one-unit increase in parity, a 30% less odds (odds ratio 0.7; confidence interval 0.4-0.9) of using one or more support services occurred.

CONCLUSIONS: Physicians should ensure prenatal patients' knowledge of support services at healthcare centers. Multiparity is inversely related to women's intent to use support services, independent of their knowledge of service availability.