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. 2022 May-Jun;137(3):488-497.
doi: 10.1177/00333549211006986. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Knowledge of Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus Among Women Who Are Pregnant or Intend to Become Pregnant, Arizona, 2017

Elizabeth J Anderson  1   2 , Kacey Ernst  2 , David O Garcia  1 , Elise Lopez  1 , Kristen Pogreba Brown  3 , Erika Austhof  4 , Dametreea Carr McCuin  3 , Mary H Hayden  5 , Mary P Koss  1
Affiliations

Knowledge of Sexual Transmission of Zika Virus Among Women Who Are Pregnant or Intend to Become Pregnant, Arizona, 2017

Elizabeth J Anderson et al. Public Health Rep. 2022 May-Jun.

Abstract

Objectives: Levels of knowledge about the sexual transmission of Zika virus are consistently low in populations at risk of a mosquito-borne outbreak, including among women of childbearing age and women who are pregnant or intend to become pregnant. We investigated the effectiveness of sources of public health messaging about sexual transmission to women who are pregnant or intend to become pregnant in Arizona.

Methods: In 2017, we conducted an Arizona-statewide survey 15 months after the initial release of US guidelines on sexual transmission of Zika virus. We used Poisson regression, adjusting for demographic factors, to estimate the likelihood among women who were pregnant or intended to become pregnant of knowing that Zika virus is sexually transmitted relative to other women of childbearing age. We used multinomial logistic regression models to explore associations with most used health information sources, either in person (eg, medical providers) or online (eg, Facebook), categorized by extent of dependability.

Results: Women who were pregnant or intended to become pregnant had similarly poor knowledge of the sexual transmission of Zika virus as compared with other women of childbearing age (adjusted prevalence ratio = 1.14 [95% CI, 0.83-1.55]). Only about one-third of all respondents reported knowledge of sexual transmission. Reliance on high- vs low-dependability information sources, whether in person or online, did not predict the extent of Zika virus knowledge among women who were pregnant or intended to become pregnant.

Conclusion: As late as the second year of local Zika virus transmission in the United States, in 2017, women in Arizona were not receiving sufficient information about sexual transmission, even though it was available. To prepare for possible future outbreaks, research should explore which aspects of Zika information campaigns were ineffective or inefficient.

Keywords: Zika virus; health information sourcing preferences; pregnancy; sexual transmission of Zika virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Conflicting Interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure
Figure
Proportion of women aged 18-49 responding to an online survey of Zika virus knowledge who frequently used internet sources, by level of reported Zika virus knowledge, Arizona, 2017. Of 710 respondents, 57 (8.0%) said they never obtain health information online, of whom 18 had never heard of the Zika virus. Error bars indicate 95% CIs. Data source: secondary analysis of a 2017 survey of Arizona residents; details of the primary data analysis available elsewhere. Abbreviations: ADHS, Arizona Department of Health Services; CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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