Barriers and facilitators related to the uptake of four strategies to prevent neonatal early-onset group B haemolytic streptococcus disease: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND: Actions to prevent early onset disease in neonates are based on different strategies including administering antibiotic prophylaxis during labour in case of 1) maternal GBS colonisation (screening strategy), 2) identified risk factors (risk-based strategy) or 3) a combination of these two conditions (maternal GBS colonisation and identified risk factors: combination strategy and the Dutch guideline). Low adherence to guidelines preventing EOGBS has been reported. Each strategy has drawbacks and clinical outcomes are affected by care providers’ and women’s adherence. The actual impact of any preventive strategy is the product of efficacy of the strategy and the level of implementation. In order to reduce neonatal death due to EOGBS by developing the optimal guideline, we analysed barriers and facilitators of current used strategies. METHODS: Focus group and personal interviews with care providers and women were performed. Impeding and enhancing factors in adherence to the preventive strategies were discussed and scored using the Measurement Instrument for Determinants of Innovations (MIDI) and analysed by two independent researchers. RESULTS: Overall, care providers identified 3.6 times more factors that would impede (n = 116) rather than facilitate (n = 32) adherence to the preventive strategies. 28% facilitative factors were reported in relation to the combination strategy and 86% impeding factors in relation to the Dutch guideline. The most preferred strategy was the combination strategy by 74% of the care providers and by 86% of the women. DISCUSSION: We obtained a detailed understanding of factors that influence adherence to preventive strategies. This insight can be used to develop implementation activities to improve the uptake of new strategies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The trial is registered in the Dutch Trial Register NTR3965. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12884-017-1314-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.