Identifying children at high somatic risk: possible long-term effects on the parents' attitudes toward themselves as parents and toward having more children.

Neonatal identification of children at high somatic risk due to inherited alpha 1 antitrypsin deficiency (ATD) was hypothesized to have had negative long-term effects on the parents' attitudes toward themselves as parents and toward having more children. The parents of 61 children with ATD were followed-up and studied by interviews about 5 years after the child's ATD was identified, and compared with demographically similar parents of 61 control children without ATD. No support was found for the hypothesized negative effects on these parental attitudes.