Women's attitudes toward practicing cytomegalovirus prevention behaviors

Abstract

Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection causes severe disabilities and developmental delays. Women's awareness of CMV is low. Only about half of healthcare providers report counseling women about behaviors to reduce CMV risk and public health education is limited. Routine CMV counseling is not recommend. Providers may lack time to counsel women; other conditions may take priority for counseling; there may be a perception that women are reluctant to follow advice. This cross-sectional descriptive study examined women's attitudes toward CMV prevention behaviors. Data were collected from an online panel of 840 U.S. women 18–40 years of age, who had a child < 5 years of age, and were pregnant or planning a pregnancy in the next 12 months. Questions assessed CMV awareness, frequency of past behaviors that transmit CMV, and attitudes toward eight CMV prevention behaviors. Only 15.5% of women were somewhat or very familiar with CMV. Very few women (6.1%) reported hearing from their provider about CMV. Women held positive attitudes toward the CMV prevention behaviors and perceived them as feasible. Least positive attitudes were toward not kissing a child on the lips and not sharing foods. Predictors of positive attitudes were CMV awareness, past behavior, talking to a healthcare provider, and perceived risk reduction. Healthcare providers and public health practitioners should collaborate to increase CMV awareness. Encouraging behaviors to reduce saliva sharing may result in greater gains in reducing CMV infection.

Congenital cytomegalovirus infection

“…Since many women acquire CMV through exposure to children, messaging for reducing women's risk of CMV infection from children (Table) have been proposed for counseling women about CMV prevention. [69][70][71] Adler et al 72,73 first proposed a behavioral approach in women and found that pregnant women perceived themselves to be at a higher risk than nonpregnant women and were more likely to be amenable to effective behavior changes. Studies in France and Italy have shown that counseling women about their hygiene practices reduced the CMV seroconversion rates in pregnant women.…”

Attitudes of U.S. Hispanic and non-Hispanic women toward congenital CMV prevention behaviors: a cross sectional study

“…The dependent variable was attitude toward practicing the CMV prevention behaviors, specifically avoiding sharing cups, food, and utensils with a child and not kissing a child on the lips. Attitude was assessed using a seven-point semantic differential scale with four different descriptors: impractical-practical, inconvenient-convenient, difficult-easy, unrealistic-realistic [ 17 ]. Ratings were averaged over the four scales to create a single attitude score for each CMV prevention behavior ranging from 1 to 7 with higher scores indicating more positive attitudes toward performing that behavior.…”

“…Prior research indicates that the majority of women regularly perform hand hygiene and few women regularly put a child’s pacifier in their mouth [ 16 , 17 ]. For this reason, this paper focuses on the less practiced CMV prevention behaviors of not sharing food, cups, and utensils with children and not kissing children on the lips.…”

State of knowledge concerrning congenital cmv infection among pregnant women and those who plan pregnancy

“…Tylko 19,7% (62/314) ankietowanych kobiet otrzymało w czasie ciąży informacje na temat CMV i działań zapobiegających zakażeniu. W USA przeprowadzono badanie ankietowe w formie online w grupie 840 kobiet w wieku rozrodczym (18-40 lat), posiadających dziecko poniżej 5. roku życia i będą-cych aktualnie w ciąży lub planujących ją w najbliższych 12 miesiącach [47]. Celem ankiety było zbadanie postaw kobiet wobec 8 podstawowych zachowań profilaktycznych ukierunkowanych na zapobieganie zakażeniu CMV, ocena świadomości kobiet na temat zakażenia wirusem cytomegalii oraz ocena częstości zachowań, które mogą sprzyjać transmisji zakażenia.…”