Pregnant women and listeriosis: Preferred educational messages and delivery mechanisms

Objective: To characterize pregnant womens food safety practices, to evaluate the impact of existing educational messages on the risks and prevention of listeriosis, and to identify preferred delivery methods for educational initiatives. Design: Eight focus group discussions conducted with pregnant women in 4 locations. Setting: Focus group discussions led by moderators using a prepared moderator guide. Participants: Purposeful sampling was used to select the 63 pregnant women who participated in this study. The focus groups were segmented by location and education level. Phenomenon of Interest: Food safety knowledge and food-handling practices, food safety practices during pregnancy, attitudes toward listeriosis brochure, and preferred delivery methods. Analysis: Focus group discussions were videotaped and audiorecorded. Detailed summaries of each discussion were prepared and systematically analyzed to identify common themes within and across groups. Results: Participants were not aware of the risks of listeriosis and recommended practices for listeriosis prevention; thus, they were not taking precautions during their pregnancy to prevent listeriosis. Conclusions and Implications: The study identified the need to develop educational materials on listeriosis targeted specifically to pregnant women and to partner with obstetricians and other health care providers to deliver these materials to pregnant women.