Environmental Health Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices of French Prenatal Professionals Working with a Socially Underprivileged Population: A Qualitative Study

Introduction: As environmental health knowledge of population is associated with social economic status, the objective of this study was to determine environmental health knowledge, attitudes, and practices of French prenatal professionals working with a socially underprivileged population. Material and methods: A focus group with eleven prenatal professionals working with socially underprivileged population was carried out in France in 2015. Content analysis of verbatim explanation was conducted with choice-of-subject categories carried out according to the triangulation principle, and topic trees were generated and applied. Results: The professionals have non-specialized experimental knowledge of emergent risks and were essentially preoccupied by infectious biological risks. In practice, however, they became increasingly cognizant of emergent risks. Their educational practices take cultural context into account but educational tools with imagination and affectivity have to be developed in order to reach socially underprivileged population. Discussion: Professionals are often sensitized to the field of environmental health in their apprehension of polluted biological environments, which they associate with social contexts and behavioral factors. In this study, we recommend adapted training programs and updated professional guidelines in view of reducing prenatal emergent risk exposures and social inequalities of health.