Prenatal herpes simplex virus serologic screening beliefs and practices among obstetricians.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the beliefs and practices of obstetricians related to prenatal serologic testing for HSV infection.


METHODS
A total of 265 (73% of eligible) currently practicing obstetricians in Washington State completed a 36-question mailed survey that assessed beliefs regarding genital herpes in pregnancy, neonatal herpes, serologic testing for herpes in pregnancy, and ease of testing.


RESULTS
Ninety-five percent of respondents believed genital herpes was common in reproductive-aged women, 83% believed neonatal herpes was a serious health issue, and 73% believed it warranted systematic prevention efforts; 74% discussed herpes with pregnant patients as part of prenatal care, 31% provided written materials about herpes, and 15% used serologic tests for herpes in 75% or more of their prenatal patients. Factors independently associated with routine herpes serologic testing were academic practice setting (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 10.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.8-39.1) and metropolitan practice setting (aOR 3.3, 95% CI 1.4-7.9). Beliefs that testing would cause unnecessary distress in pregnancy (aOR 0.3, 95% CI 0.1-0.7), or that testing was not worth the expense (aOR 0.1, 95% CI 0.0-0.6) were associated with not testing. Availability of serologic tests for HSV was reported to be high and was not associated with prenatal HSV testing.


CONCLUSIONS
Most obstetricians believe neonatal herpes prevention is important.


METHODS
II.
Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98119, USA. cgardel@u.washington.edu
Carolyn
C
Gardella
Julia
J
Barnes
Amalia S
AS
Magaret
Julie
J
Richards
Linda
L
Drolette
Anna
A
Wald
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003625:Data Collection; D005260:Female; D006561:Herpes Simplex / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical / Q000517:prevention & control*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009774:Obstetrics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011296:Prenatal Diagnosis; D012698:Serologic Tests; D014861:Washington