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Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants

Fish consumption has established benefits, including the promotion of cardiovascular health and pre- and neonatal brain and eye development, but local freshwater fish may be a source of contaminants that are especially harmful to fetuses and young children, such as the neurotoxic and developmentally...

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Autores principales: LePrevost, Catherine E., Gray, Kathleen M., Hernández-Pelletier, Mercedes, Bouma, Brennan D., Arellano, Consuelo, Cope, W. Gregory
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3709344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23629591
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10051720
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author LePrevost, Catherine E.
Gray, Kathleen M.
Hernández-Pelletier, Mercedes
Bouma, Brennan D.
Arellano, Consuelo
Cope, W. Gregory
author_facet LePrevost, Catherine E.
Gray, Kathleen M.
Hernández-Pelletier, Mercedes
Bouma, Brennan D.
Arellano, Consuelo
Cope, W. Gregory
author_sort LePrevost, Catherine E.
collection PubMed
description Fish consumption has established benefits, including the promotion of cardiovascular health and pre- and neonatal brain and eye development, but local freshwater fish may be a source of contaminants that are especially harmful to fetuses and young children, such as the neurotoxic and developmentally toxic methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls. Fish consumption advisories may be issued by state health departments to limit human exposure to these and other toxicants. This study examined the efficacy of a sign designed by the North Carolina Division of Public Health that was posted along a reservoir (Badin Lake) in central North Carolina, USA, for increasing anglers’ awareness of a fish consumption advisory, with a special focus on anglers who share their catch with women and children. In this study, 109 anglers were interviewed about their awareness of fish consumption advisories in general and their knowledge of the Badin Lake fish advisory in particular. Shore anglers were significantly less likely to be aware of the term “fish consumption advisory” and of the specific advisory for Badin Lake than boat anglers. Although a significant increase in knowledge of the specific fish consumption advisory was found for the entire sample of study participants after the sign intervention, a commensurate increase in knowledge was not found for a subsample of anglers who reported sharing their catch with women and children. Study findings underscore differences in fish consumption advisory awareness among subpopulations. Specifically, the study revealed the importance of characterizing the communication needs of shore anglers and anglers who share their catch with sensitive subpopulations (e.g., women and children) for the creation of more targeted communications of fish consumption advisories.
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spelling pubmed-37093442013-07-12 Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants LePrevost, Catherine E. Gray, Kathleen M. Hernández-Pelletier, Mercedes Bouma, Brennan D. Arellano, Consuelo Cope, W. Gregory Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Fish consumption has established benefits, including the promotion of cardiovascular health and pre- and neonatal brain and eye development, but local freshwater fish may be a source of contaminants that are especially harmful to fetuses and young children, such as the neurotoxic and developmentally toxic methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls. Fish consumption advisories may be issued by state health departments to limit human exposure to these and other toxicants. This study examined the efficacy of a sign designed by the North Carolina Division of Public Health that was posted along a reservoir (Badin Lake) in central North Carolina, USA, for increasing anglers’ awareness of a fish consumption advisory, with a special focus on anglers who share their catch with women and children. In this study, 109 anglers were interviewed about their awareness of fish consumption advisories in general and their knowledge of the Badin Lake fish advisory in particular. Shore anglers were significantly less likely to be aware of the term “fish consumption advisory” and of the specific advisory for Badin Lake than boat anglers. Although a significant increase in knowledge of the specific fish consumption advisory was found for the entire sample of study participants after the sign intervention, a commensurate increase in knowledge was not found for a subsample of anglers who reported sharing their catch with women and children. Study findings underscore differences in fish consumption advisory awareness among subpopulations. Specifically, the study revealed the importance of characterizing the communication needs of shore anglers and anglers who share their catch with sensitive subpopulations (e.g., women and children) for the creation of more targeted communications of fish consumption advisories. MDPI 2013-04-29 2013-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3709344/ /pubmed/23629591 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10051720 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/).
spellingShingle Article
LePrevost, Catherine E.
Gray, Kathleen M.
Hernández-Pelletier, Mercedes
Bouma, Brennan D.
Arellano, Consuelo
Cope, W. Gregory
Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title_full Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title_fullStr Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title_full_unstemmed Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title_short Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants
title_sort need for improved risk communication of fish consumption advisories to protect maternal and child health: influence of primary informants
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3709344/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23629591
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph10051720
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