Abstract

Objective: We evaluated what German-speaking women in Berlin know about umbilical cord blood banking (UCBB) and whether a correlation exists between women's knowledge about UCBB and level of education.

Method: We used the anonymous questionnaire given to German-speaking women in Berlin, Germany.

Results: A total of 300 questionnaires could be evaluated. Although three quarters of our population heard of UCBB, most had no further knowledge about the method. Only about one-third of the interviewed women were informed about whether certain diseases had been treated with umbilical cord blood (UCB) by the time the survey was being conducted, whereas 50–65% did not know how to answer these questions.

Conclusion: Women in Berlin were poorly educated about the usefulness, the costs and the methods of cryopreservation. To some extent there is a correlation between women's level of education and their knowledge regarding UCB.