[Esta página en Español]

Preventing Alcohol-Exposed Pregnancies

Increasing Public Awareness of the Risks of Alcohol Use During Pregnancy Through Targeted Media Campaigns

Effective media campaigns create awareness, change attitudes, and motivate individuals and communities to engage in healthy behaviors. Successful campaigns target specific audiences taking into account the unique preferences and needs of particular groups. The targeted media campaign is one strategy to enhance current prevention efforts related to fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and other prenatal alcohol-related effects. Evidence-based approaches to the design, implementation, and evaluation of these types of projects are needed and are currently underway to determine the most effective strategies for use in media campaigns aimed at reducing prenatal alcohol use.

Funded Projects:

St. Louis University—St. Louis, Missouri
This project is designing, implementing, and evaluating a media campaign targeting African-American women, aged 18 through 35 years, at risk for pregnancy. The primary purpose of the campaign is to increase knowledge and change attitudes about alcohol use during pregnancy. A comprehensive media campaign has been developed using a variety of strategies including visual, audio, and print advertisements, direct marketing, media interviews with experts, and community event exposure. The campaign is built around four core messages: (1) drinking alcohol during pregnancy harms unborn babies, (2) pregnant women should abstain from alcohol, (3) sexually active women should not drink if they could be pregnant, and (4) women at risk for an alcohol-exposed pregnancy should see a physician. Evaluation of the intervention consists of pre- and post-intervention random-digit dialing surveys of the African-American community both in St. Louis and Kansas City (control group).

University of California at Los Angeles—Los Angeles, California
This project is developing, implementing, and evaluating a social marketing campaign using a “narrowcasting approach” that warns women about the dangers of drinking alcohol during pregnancy. Narrowcasting refers to information that is directed to a highly specific segment of the public. The purpose of the project are to change norms and perceptions of women who are light or moderate drinkers both prior to and during pregnancy. The target groups include White, Hispanic, and African-American women, aged 18 through 30 years. Print materials have been developed and disseminated, saturating specific neighborhoods in two communities of southern California over a 12-month period, with a third community serving as a comparison group. Project partners work with community participants and professional agencies to create high-quality campaign messages and materials. Evaluation consists of a repeated cross-sectional survey design.

University of Iowa—Iowa City, Iowa
The goals of the project are to design, implement, and evaluate the effectiveness of a broad-based and localized media campaign aimed at reducing prenatal alcohol use in rural areas, targeting women enrolled in the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program. Through formative research, project staff are producing commercial-quality materials for dissemination in three channels (a broad based 30-second television commercial, a eight minute video for localized distribution in WIC clinics, and a printed pamphlet for distribution in WIC clinics) to increase awareness about the dangers of alcohol use during pregnancy. WIC clinics in rural Iowa will be paired and randomly assigned to usual-care or intervention groups. The usual-care group will be exposed to the 30-second commercial and printed pamphlet, while the intervention group will be exposed to messages in all three channels. Evaluation will consist of pre- and post-test surveys assessing changes in knowledge, interactions with health care professionals, reported alcohol use, and perceptions of normative expectations in the social network regarding consumption of alcohol during pregnancy.

[Return to Top]

This page was last updated Thursday, August 05, 2004

FAS Home | CDC Activities | Resources | Task Force

CDC Home | Search | Health Topics A-Z

Accessibility | Privacy Policy Notice

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities

The National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities (NCBDDD) promotes the health of babies, children, and adults, and enhances the potential for full, productive living.  Our work includes identifying the causes of birth defects and developmental disabilities, helping children to develop and reach their full potential, and promoting health and well-being among people of all ages with disabilities.