1140 - Awareness of Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Among Postpartum Mothers: Education Needed!

Background: Congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) infection is the leading cause of non-genetic sensorineural hearing loss and affects approximately 0.5%-1% of all live births in the United States. Despite its substantial burden, maternal awareness of congenital CMV disease is limited. In addition, there is no information on CMV awareness among postpartum women who ultimately would consent for CMV newborn screening.  Thus our objective of this study was to determine the proportion and characteristics of postpartum women who had knowledge of CMV in an academic medical center in Columbus, OH.

Methods: From May - December 2019, 276 postpartum women who delivered a newborn at the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH were asked if they had prior knowledge of CMV. Eligible mothers had delivered an infant who was admitted to the Newborn Nursery, were ≥ 35 weeks’ gestational age, and had no signs of congenital CMV infection. These mothers had consented for enrollment of their newborn into the University of Alabama’s Collaborative Antiviral Study Group multicenter study on CMV screening (saliva) of asymptomatic infants. Pertinent demographic and clinical data were collected and subsequently managed using REDCap electronic data capture tools hosted at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Columbus, OH. Statistical analyses were performed using GraphPad Prism.

Results: 505 eligible infants were born during the study period and 276 (55%) of the mothers were asked about their awareness of CMV infection. Of the 276 mothers (62%, white; 24%, Black; 3%, Asian; 0.4%, Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander; 3%, biracial; 8%, not known), 30 (10%) had prior knowledge of CMV. Mothers who were aware of CMV did not differ from mothers who did not know about CMV in primigravida status (12/30 [40%] vs. 84/246 [34%], P=.55) or age (median, IQR; 33 years [29-35] vs. 31 years [26-34], P=.11). All infants had a normal physical examination, and none had congenital CMV infection. 

Conclusion: Among postpartum mothers who consented to saliva screening of their newborns for congenital CMV infection, only 10% were previously aware of CMV. Such a knowledge gap should be addressed to better inform both universal and targeted newborn CMV screening among postpartum mothers.