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| Special Webinar Announcement |
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WEBINAR TOPIC:
CePAWHS:
Knowledge about Why and How to Improve Preconception Health
Watch for link to registration through MCHB |
Join us to learn more about the Central Pennsylvania Women's Health Study (CePAWHS). The research in CePAWHS, led by Weisman, Hillemeier, Chuang, and colleagues, forms one of the most important sources of knowledge about why and how to improve women's preconception and interconception health.
This webinar is jointly hosted by Abt Associates, with the support of the Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Health Resources and Services Administration
(MCHB-HRSA), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative.
Participants in this webinar will: - Better understand the effective, community-based preconception intervention used in CePAWHS.
- Review women's preconception health risk factors in terms of a life course perspective.
- Discuss the importance of health education and clinical interventions.
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The presenters will be Drs. Carol Weisman, Marianne Hillemeier, and Cynthia Chuang.
- Carol S. Weisman, Ph.D, is Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Distinguished Professor of Public Health Sciences, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Health Policy and Administration at the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. She is also Director of the Central Pennsylvania Center of Excellence for Research on Pregnancy Outcomes at the Penn State College of Medicine. Dr. Weisman is a sociologist and health services researcher with a principal interest in women's health care and policy. Her research focuses on improving access to primary and preventive care, organizational models for primary care delivery, and quality of health care for women. Her major current project, CePAWHS, focuses on understanding the determinants of the health of reproductive-age women, particularly in low-income rural and urban communities, and the relationship between preconception health and pregnancy outcomes for the mother and baby. Dr. Weisman is the author of over 140 publications. She works with the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) to develop performance measures for women's health care and to assess disparities in care delivery. Dr. Weisman received her B.A. from Wellesley College with a major in Sociology and Anthropology and her Ph.D. in Social Relations from the Johns Hopkins University. . Prior to joining Penn State, she was Professor of Health Management and Policy at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Professor and Associate Chair of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health
- Marianne M. Hillemeier has multidisciplinary training in maternal and child health, with an MS in Pediatric Nursing from Yale, an MPH in Maternal Child Health from Harvard, and a PhD in Sociology/Demography from the University of Michigan. She is an Associate Professor of Health Policy and Administration and Demography at Pennsylvania State University, and has served as Co-Principal Investigator of CePAWHS. Dr. Hillemeier has conducted multidisciplinary research related to women's health, and is particularly interested in how women's health disparities adversely impact the health of their children. She has been Principal Investigator of an R03 from NIMH focusing on disparities in children's use of mental health services, and is currently Co-Principal Investigator of an NICHD-funded study of disparities in early childhood cognitive development and a Co-Investigator in the NICHD Child and Community Health Network (CCHN).
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Cynthia Chuang, MD, MSc is Associate Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences and Associate Director of Research in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Penn State College of Medicine. As an academic general internist at Penn State Hershey, Dr. Chuang is a women's health researcher, primary care provider, and mentor for medical students and residents. She currently holds a K23 career development award from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study predictors of unintended pregnancy in women with chronic medical conditions. She completed her medical school education at New York University, and did her Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia. She subsequently was a General Internal Medicine/Women's Health research fellow at Boston University, where she also received her Masters of Science in Epidemiology.
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A Sample of Findings from CePAWHS
CePAWHS conducted a randomized trial of a unique, multidimensional, small group format intervention, Strong Healthy Women, designed to improve women's preconception and interconception health. Women in the intervention group were significantly more likely than controls to report higher self-efficacy for eating healthy food and to perceive higher preconception control of birth outcomes; greater intent to eat healthy foods and be more physically active; greater frequency of physical activity; and more daily use of a multivitamin with folic acid. Significant dose effects were found. Each additional intervention session attended was associated with higher perceived internal control of birth outcomes, engaging in activities for stress management, and daily use of a multivitamin with folic acid. These results show that these topics can be successfully addressed with women in the pre- and interconception periods outside the clinical setting in community-based interventions. This intervention protocol may offer a framework for designing other programs aiming to improve women's preconception health.
Using randomized trials, focus groups, surveys, and other data from and about women, these researchers have published the following findings and conclusions. To download a list of publications, click here.
- For women in Central Pennsylvania, preconception maternal health status and health-related behaviors can affect birthweight and fetal growth independent of prenatal and socioeconomic variables.
- Only half of women at risk of pregnancy reported receiving counseling about pregnancy planning in the prior year. One-third of women surveyed did not receive routine physical examinations and screening services, and over half received little or no health counseling.
- Women have different patterns of provider use across the lifespan. Multiple indicators of health status and health risks were examined and results show that many risk factors varied significantly by reproductive stage and by age group within reproductive stage ages 18-34 and ages 35-45).
- Educational and social marketing efforts to increase women's use of preconception care may be particularly important for women who are likely to have lower internal control, including younger, less educated, unmarried, and less healthy women.
- Observed knowledge deficits about pregnancy-related risks among women with diabetes, hypertension, and obesity, as well as lack of intent to engage in preconception health promotion and pregnancy planning. These findings have important implications for the development of preconception care for women with chronic medical conditions
- Greater emphasis is needed about the importance of nutrition, folic acid supplementation, physical activity, avoiding binge drinking, not smoking, and avoiding vaginal douching in the preconception period.
- Preconception overweight (BMI = 25-29.9) increased the odds of excessive pregnancy weight gain nearly threefold, whereas preconception physical activity levels meeting guidelines reduced the odds of excessive weight gain.
- Pregnancy intention was strongly associated with pregnancy incidence over a 2-year follow-up period among women ages 25 and older, suggesting that pregnancy intentions could be used to identify women at greater risk of pregnancy and in need of preconception interventions.
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| Preconception Health and Health Care Initiative |
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