Family Perceptions of Newborn Cytomegalovirus Screening: A Qualitative Study.

Objectives: We sought to understand long-term retrospective parental perceptions of the utility of newborn screening in a context where many affected children never develop sequelae but where intensive support services and ongoing healthcare were provided.

Study Design: Qualitative study.

Methods: Focus groups and interviews among parents (N = 41) of children with congenital CMV who had been enrolled in a long-term follow-up study at a large medical college for a mean of 22 years following diagnosis.

Using theory-based messages to motivate U.S. pregnant women to prevent cytomegalovirus infection: results from formative research.

Background: An estimated 1 in 150 infants is born each year with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV); nearly 1 in 750 suffers permanent disabilities. Congenital CMV is the result of a pregnant woman becoming infected with CMV. Educating pregnant women about CMV is currently the best approach to prevention.

Examining Parents' Experiences and Information Needs Regarding Early Identification of Developmental Delays: Qualitative Research to Inform a Public Health Campaign.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the approach and materials of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Learn the Signs. Act Early." (LTSAE) health education campaign, which aims to improve awareness of developmental milestones and early warning signs of developmental delay among parents of young children.

Educating women about congenital cytomegalovirus: assessment of health education materials through a web-based survey.

Background: Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common congenital infection in the U.S. and can result in permanent disabilities, such as hearing and vision loss, intellectual disability, and psychomotor and language impairments.

Cross-sectional study of cytomegalovirus shedding and immunological markers among seropositive children and their mothers.

Background: Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the leading infectious cause of birth defects in the United States. To better understand factors that may influence CMV transmission risk, we compared viral and immunological factors in healthy children and their mothers.

Methods: We screened for CMV IgG antibodies in a convenience sample of 161 children aged 0-47 months from the Atlanta, Georgia metropolitan area, along with 32 mothers of children who screened CMV-seropositive.

Understanding Women's Preconception Health Goals: Audience Segmentation Strategies for a Preconception Health Campaign.

This article discusses the social marketing planning process and strategies used to design a preconception health campaign, , launched in February 2013. Developing a social marketing strategy for preconception health is a challenging endeavor, in part because preconception health represents a set of diverse behaviors and the audience for the campaign is quite large, encompassing all women of childbearing age whether they intend to become pregnant or not. The network of organizations implementing the campaign, the National Preconception Health Consumer Workgroup, required a broad audience segmentation strategy; therefore, two large audiences were selected.

Women's perspectives on smoking and pregnancy and graphic warning labels.

Objectives: To explore women's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about adverse outcomes associated with smoking during pregnancy and which outcomes might motivate cessation; to explore reactions to graphic warnings depicting 2 adverse outcomes.

Methods: Twelve focus groups were conducted with women of childbearing age who were current smokers.

Results: Participants had low to moderate awareness of many outcomes and believed it was acceptable to smoke in the first trimester before knowledge of pregnancy.

A content analysis of preconception health education materials: characteristics, strategies, and clinical-behavioral components.

Purpose: Many health organizations and practitioners in the United States promote preconception health (PCH) to consumers. However, summaries and evaluations of PCH promotional activities are limited.

Design: We conducted a content analysis of PCH health education materials collected from local-, state-, national-, and federal-level partners by using an existing database of partners, outreach to maternal and child health organizations, and a snowball sampling technique.

Couples' notions about preconception health: implications for framing social marketing plans.

Purpose: To understand couples' notions of preconception health (PCH) and to inform the development of social marketing plans focused on PCH. APPROACH/DESIGN: We used a social marketing perspective to understand how couples considered PCH as a product, its potential price, how it should be promoted, and in what type of places it should be promoted. These variables are typically referred to as the four social marketing P's.

Consumers' perceptions of preconception health.

Purpose: To inform the development of a preconception health (PCH) social marketing plan, we conducted qualitative research with prospective consumers.

Approach: We present formative findings based on the four Ps of social marketing: product, price, promotion, and place.

Setting: We conducted focus groups with 10 groups of women in Atlanta, Georgia, in fall 2010.

Women's knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about Down syndrome: a qualitative research study.

Women who are or may become pregnant need up-to-date information about Down syndrome (DS). Asking women about their knowledge, opinions, resources, and information needs on the topic of DS is an important precursor to develop effective strategies for education. We conducted 24 focus groups (N = 111) in two US cities with women who were recently pregnant (who had a child ≤ 3 years old without DS) and women who planned to have a child in the next year.

Awareness of and behaviors related to child-to-mother transmission of cytomegalovirus.

Objective: Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection is a common cause of hearing loss and intellectual disability. We assessed CMV knowledge and the frequency of women's behaviors that may enable CMV transmission to inform strategies for communicating prevention messages to women.

Methods: We analyzed survey responses from 4184 participants (2181 women, 2003 men) in the 2010 HealthStyles survey, a national mail survey designed to be similar to the United States population.

Preconception health: awareness, planning, and communication among a sample of US men and women.

It is important to educate both men and women about preconception health (PCH), but limited research exists in this area. This paper examines men's and women's awareness of exposure to PCH information and of specific PCH behaviors, PCH planning, and PCH discussions with their partners. Data from Porter Novelli's 2007 Healthstyles survey were used.