Abstract
Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) are environmental exposure factors that are rarely reported in clinical practice, particularly during pregnancy. This study aimed to describe women’s knowledge, attitudes and behaviors towards EDC exposure. A study was conducted in the French Department of Vienne between 2014 and 2016 and comprised semi-structured interviews with pregnant women, a focus group of professionals in perinatology and environmental health, and the administration of a psychosocial questionnaire comprising scores in 300 pregnant or in postpartum period women. The mean score of knowledge was 42.9 ± 9.8 out of 100 (from 13.5 to 75.7). Exposure attitude was determined by risk perception. Mean level of cues to action to reduce their EDC exposure was estimated at 56.9 ± 22.5 out of 100 (from 0 to 100). Anxiety was significantly increased after the questionnaire. Anxiety about EDC was associated with a high score of knowledge (OR = 2.30, 95% CI (1.12–4.71)) and with no pregnancy anxiety (OR = 0.57, 95% CI (0.34–0.95)). Our findings suggest that healthcare providers should consider pregnant women’s knowledge and perceptions, possibilities of action, and be careful not to increase their anxiety when advising them about EDC and environmental exposure.
Highlights
According to the “Developmental Origin of Health and Disease” hypothesis (DOHaD hypothesis), fetuses are susceptible to the impact of nutritional and environmental factors during the in utero period, with long-term health consequences in childhood and adulthood [1]
A psychosocial related to health behaviors, as our questionnaire, assesses the relations between individual questionnaire related to health behaviors, as our questionnaire, assesses the relations between psychological and variables variablesand related to therelated social to context in order to better describe health individual variables psychological variables the social context in order to better behaviors in front of
That is concordant with a French local survey on environmental health where 47.4% of subjects interrogated in the general population had not heard about Endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC) and 68.8% felt that they did not know about their effect on health [35]
Summary
According to the “Developmental Origin of Health and Disease” hypothesis (DOHaD hypothesis), fetuses are susceptible to the impact of nutritional and environmental factors during the in utero period, with long-term health consequences in childhood and adulthood [1]. Some of these environmental factors are endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDC). EDC are natural or synthetic chemical molecules able to modify an organism’s operation of the hormonal system [2]. Because of the trans-placental transfer of these molecules, fetuses are exposed [7]
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