2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
| Promoting Awareness of Cytomegalovirus: One Message May Not Fit All
Promoting Awareness of Cytomegalovirus: One Message May Not Fit All
About 1 in 5 babies with congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) will be born with or develop long term health concerns, such as hearing loss, vision impairment, seizures, or developmental disabilities. In 2021, the Minnesota legislature passed a law known as the Vivian Act which, in part, directed the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) to establish an outreach program to raise awareness for CMV and educate people who may become pregnant, expectant parents, and parents of infants about CMV. A study conducted in Minnesota in 2017 found that only 20% of surveyed participants had previously heard of CMV, underscoring the need for widespread public health messaging. Before engaging in a statewide awareness campaign, it was important to talk to families about what information would be meaningful to them. This engagement project aimed to understand the baseline awareness of CMV and congenital CMV in four culturally and linguistically diverse focus groups, develop effective messaging for CMV awareness and education, and test how that messaging resonated with those same groups. Stakeholders represented a wide range of zip codes, educational levels, occupations, socioeconomic status, ethnicities, comprehension abilities, and other demographic attributes relevant to the work. In this poster, we will discuss the process of statewide stakeholder and community engagement in multicultural and geographically diverse focus groups and the process for developing a messaging toolkit with the appropriate messaging for each group. The tool kit includes tag lines, catch phrases and other easy to implement elements that could be utilized for messaging to diverse audiences of people who may become pregnant, expectant parents, and parents of infants to increase awareness and understanding of CMV and congenital CMV.
- Describe the importance of targeted messaging for CMV awareness and education.
- Describe the CMV awareness and education messages that worked best among multicultural focus groups in Minnesota.
- Identify the communication channels each focus group preferred for receiving CMV awareness and education messaging.
Presentation:
3478265_16267BridgetWalde.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Bridget Walde
(Primary Presenter,Co-Presenter), Minnesota Department of Health, bridget.walde@state.mn.us;
Bridget Walde is a Planner in the Longitudinal Follow-up Unit for the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH). She supports the work of the Early Hearing Detection and Intervention program and other projects related to long-term follow-up for newborn screening conditions. Prior to working for MDH, she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund supporting the implementation of culturally responsive afterschool programming. She also spent two years working in Guatemala with children and adults with disabilities. Bridget graduated from Saint Louis University in 2018 with her Master of Public Health and a concentration in maternal and child health.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
Gina Liverseed
(Co-Presenter), Minnesota Department of Health, gina.liverseed@state.mn.us;
Gina Liverseed is the CMV Nurse Specialist in the Children and Youth with Special Health Needs section at the Minnesota Department of Health. In this role, she is responsible for coordinating the longitudinal follow-up of children identified with congenital CMV and providing education about CMV to public and provider audiences. She holds Bachelor and Master of Nursing degrees from the University Minnesota and a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from the University of North Dakota. Gina has over 20 years of experience working as a maternal-child health nurse and a Women’s Health Nurse Practitioner. She has a special interest in perinatal infectious disease.
ASHA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.
AAA DISCLOSURE:
Financial -
No relevant financial relationship exists.
Nonfinancial -
No relevant nonfinancial relationship exists.