AUTHOR=Tu Si-Jing , Wei Yu-Jia , Chen Bu-Tong , Zhang Xiao-Fei , Luo Chao , Dong Bai-Qing 

TITLE=Effects of a false-positive result in newborn congenital hypothyroidism screening on parents in Guangxi, China

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Pediatrics

VOLUME=Volume 11 - 2023

YEAR=2023

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/pediatrics/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1134923

DOI=10.3389/fped.2023.1134923

ISSN=2296-2360

ABSTRACT=BACKGROUND: As more than 500,000 neonates participate in newborn congenital hypothyroidism (CH) screening in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region each year, the overall number of false-positive (FP) has increased. We aim to assess the parental stress in parents of neonates with FP CH results in Guangxi, find out the influence factors related to demographics, and provide the basis for personalized health education. 
METHODS: The parents of neonates with FP CH results were invited to participate in the FP group, and the parents of neonates with all negative results were invited to participate in the control group. The parents completed a questionnaire on demographics, knowledge of CH and the parental stress index (PSI) in the hospital for the first time. The follow-up visits for PSI were conducted in 3, 6 and 12 months afterwards through telephone and online.
RESULTS: There were 258 and 1040 parents participated in FP group and control group respectively. The parents in the FP group had better knowledge of CH and higher PSI scores than did the parents in the control group. The result of Logistic Regression showed that the major influence factors of knowledge of CH were FP experience and source of knowledge. The parents in the FP group who were well-informed during the recall phone call had lower PSI scores than did the other parents. The parents in FP group showed decreasing PSI scores gradually in follow-up visits. 
CONCLUSION: The results suggested that FP screening results may affect parental stress and the parent-child relationships. FP results increased the stress on the parents, and increased their knowledge of CH passively.