Knowledge and acceptability of Chlamydia trachomatis screening among pregnant women and their partners; a cross-sectional study

BMC Public Health

Eileen K Hutton⁶  François G Schellevis³  Servaas A Morré¹  G Ingrid JG Rours⁴  Judith Manniën²  Evelien R Spelten²  Monique TR Pereboom⁵ 

[1]Institute for Public Health Genomics, Department of Genetics and cell Biology, Research School GROW, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands

[2]Department of Midwifery Science, AVAG and the EMGO + Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, P.O. Box 7057, (Room D4.40), Amsterdam, 1007 MB, The Netherlands

[3]Department of General Practice and Elderly Care Medicine/EMGO+, Institute for Health and Care Research, VU University Medical Center, P.O. Box 7057 (Room D5.38), Amsterdam, 1007 MB, The Netherlands

[4]Department of Paediatrics, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

[5]Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College School of Public Health, Imperial College London, Norfolk Place, London, W2 1PG, UK

[6]Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Michael G. DeGroote Centre for Learning (Room 2210), 1280 Main St. W, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4 K1, Canada

关键词: Pregnancy;    Experiences;    Attitudes;    Health knowledge;    Prenatal care;    Chlamydia trachomatis;   

Others  :  866290
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-14-704

 received in 2014-03-28, accepted in 2014-06-09,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Chlamydia trachomatis infections in pregnancy can cause maternal disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and neonatal disease, which is why chlamydia screening during pregnancy has been advocated. The effectiveness of a screening program depends on the knowledge of health care professionals, women and partners and the acceptability for screening of the target population. We assessed the knowledge of chlamydia infection among pregnant women and their partners in the Netherlands, their attitudes towards testing, and their experiences of being offered a chlamydia test. In addition, we evaluated the association between participants’ background characteristics and knowledge of chlamydia.

Methods

Pregnant women aged ≤ 30 years and their partners (regardless of their age) attending one of the participating primary midwifery care practices in the Netherlands were invited to participate. All participants completed a questionnaire, pregnant women provided a vaginal swab and partners provided a urine sample to test for C. trachomatis.

Results

In total, 383 pregnant women and 282 partners participated in the study of whom 1.9% women and 2.6% partners tested chlamydia positive. Participants had high levels of awareness (92.8%) of chlamydial infection. They were knowledgeable about the risk of chlamydia infection; median knowledge score was 9.0 out of 12.0. Lower knowledge scores were found among partners (p-value <0.001), younger aged (p-value 0.02), non-western origin (p-value <0.001), low educational level (p-value <0.001), and no history of sexually transmitted infections (p-value <0.001). In total, 78% of respondents indicated that when pregnant women are tested for chlamydia, their partners should also be tested; 54% believed that all women should routinely be tested. Pregnant women more often indicated than partners that testing partners for chlamydial infection was not necessary (p-value <0.001). The majority of pregnant women (56.2%) and partners (59.2%) felt satisfied by being offered the test during antenatal care.

Conclusion

Pregnant women and their partners were knowledgeable about chlamydial infection, found testing, both pregnant women and their partners, for chlamydia acceptable and not stigmatizing.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Pereboom et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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