Need for Improved Risk Communication of Fish Consumption Advisories to Protect Maternal and Child Health: Influence of Primary Informants

Abstract

Fish consumption has established benefits, including the promotion of cardiovascular health and pre- and neonatal brain and eye development, but local freshwater fish may be a source of contaminants that are especially harmful to fetuses and young children, such as the neurotoxic and developmentally toxic methylmercury and polychlorinated biphenyls. Fish consumption advisories may be issued by state health departments to limit human exposure to these and other toxicants. This study examined the efficacy of a sign designed by the North Carolina Division of Public Health that was posted along a reservoir (Badin Lake) in central North Carolina, USA, for increasing anglers’ awareness of a fish consumption advisory, with a special focus on anglers who share their catch with women and children. In this study, 109 anglers were interviewed about their awareness of fish consumption advisories in general and their knowledge of the Badin Lake fish advisory in particular. Shore anglers were significantly less likely to be aware of the term “fish consumption advisory” and of the specific advisory for Badin Lake than boat anglers. Although a significant increase in knowledge of the specific fish consumption advisory was found for the entire sample of study participants after the sign intervention, a commensurate increase in knowledge was not found for a subsample of anglers who reported sharing their catch with women and children. Study findings underscore differences in fish consumption advisory awareness among subpopulations. Specifically, the study revealed the importance of characterizing the communication needs of shore anglers and anglers who share their catch with sensitive subpopulations (e.g., women and children) for the creation of more targeted communications of fish consumption advisories.

Anglers’ Views on Using Signs to Communicate Fish Consumption Advisories

“…Recent research has highlighted the need to ensure that racial and ethnic groups that consume more fish than average consumers receive tailored information to prevent over-consumption of contaminated fish (Xu and Newman 2015). Additionally, research has shown that women are less aware of advisories than men, and risk reduction messages are not reaching women of childbearing age (Tan et al 2011;LePrevost et al 2013).…”

Comparison of Recreational Fish Consumption Advisories Across the USA

“…In addition, our work does not consider the communication tools and techniques used to disseminate advisories. Since some dissemination methods are known to be more effective than others at informing people of health risks posed by self-caught fish [ 86 , 87 ], future research should consider risk communication. Our analysis focused on four key risk assessment variables shown in Eqs.…”

Recreational Angler Perspectives of Nonnative Fish Species and Mercury Advisories

“…Logistic stepwise regression found lower household income to be associated with a lack of awareness in both studies. Awareness of consumption advisories has also been found to significantly lower in demographic groups making less than $20,000 in other studies (LePrevost, et al, 2013, Burger, 1998.…”

“…income, has also been noted by Beehler (2003) in a study observing low awareness of latino recreational and subsistence anglers who fish from shore and from boat. Higher awareness by boat anglers has been attributed to posted mercury advisory signs at boat ramps and immersion in fishing literature (LePrevost, et al, 2013). Anglers attribute increased awareness to the presence posted signs (Beehler, 2003), however there is variability in the success of posted signs, with higher awareness reported from newspaper, television and other people, and issuance of advisories at the time of license purchase (Katner et al, 2011, Burger, 1998.…”