Preferences for Prenatal Care Among Pregnant Women: A Systematic Review of Discrete Choice Experiment Studies.

Authors

Hui Xie, Jingbo Qiu, Ruo Jiang, Pengjie Zhang, Yugang Li, Xinhua Ji, Wei Zhu

Published in

International journal of women's health. Volume 18. Pages 637727. Epub Oct 01, 2026.

Abstract

Prenatal care and its utilization can reduce the risks of adverse outcomes associated with pregnancy. Incorporating pregnant women's preferences into care delivery can better meet their needs and improve outcomes. Our study aimed to systematically review evidence regarding preferences for prenatal care among pregnant women with a focus on how the preferences were elicited through a discrete choice experiment (DCE).
We searched DCE studies published up to May 2025 in PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus. Two collaborators independently screened titles and abstracts, and then performed full-text reviews. Eligible studies were cross-sectional DCEs that elicited pregnant women's preferences for prenatal care. One collaborator extracted data, and another verified the data extraction. We used the PREFS checklist for quality assessment. We summarized the findings using a narrative synthesis. We grouped attributes into categories and described their range-based relative importance (RI).
Of 748 studies identified, 19 were finally included. Among these, 17 focused on preferences for specific prenatal testing and 2 on general prenatal care delivery. From the 17 DCEs on prenatal testing, 75 attributes were identified and grouped into eight categories: (1) information; (2) waiting time for test results; (3) cost; (4) test performance; (5) safety; (6) contents and procedures; (7) timing of test; and (8) staff. At the attribute level, the minimum RI (1.29%) was reported for "time to wait for results"; the maximum was 74.17% for "likelihood of getting a result". At the category level, "safety" had the highest median RI (30.76%), followed by "staff" (27.08%) and "test performance" (23.72%).
Current DCE-based preference studies concentrate on specific prenatal testing, leaving preferences for non-medical aspects of prenatal care delivery underexplored. Pregnant women seemed to value care safety, care provider types and care efficacy more highly, and these elements may be prioritized in future DCEs.

PMID:
42836087
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 06 Oct 2026.

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