Statistical Analysis of Genetic Counseling Impacts

Abstract

A double-pronged statistical approach to retrospective data is used to test and develop hypotheses about some impacts of genetic counseling. Both log-linear and discriminant analyses suggest that education and burden centered explanations of postcounseling pregnancies should be modified in favor of a hypothesis based on an interaction of past reproductive experiences and parental desire for children. Log-linear and best subsets regression analyses converge on risk level and socioeconomic status as the key factors accounting for variance in couples' feelings about genetic counseling. Risk level is found to have a questionable effect on postcounseling reproductive behavior while providing the primary impact of all variables explaining couples' feelings about genetic counseling.