Details:

Alternative Title:
Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol
Personal Author:
Mai, Cara T. ; Petersen, Emily E. ; Miller, Assia
Mai, Cara T. ; Petersen, Emily E. ; Miller, Assia Less -
Description:
BACKGROUND

‘Birth defect’ is a common phrase, yet concerns have been expressed that the word ‘defect’ carries a negative connotation. Our objective was to examine public perceptions of terms used to refer to birth defects.

METHODS

Four questions about terminology of birth defects were included in the U.S. nationally representative 2007 HealthStyles survey. Respondents answered questions about whether they or a family member were affected by birth defects (condition status), and which terms used to refer to birth defects they found preferable and which offensive. We further examined whether condition status, race/ethnicity, gender, income, geographical region, and education level impacted respondents’ term selection. Chi-square tests and multinomial logistic regression were performed using SAS 9.1.

RESULTS

‘Birth defects’ was most frequently selected as the first choice preferred term (35.4%), followed by 21.9% who selected ‘children with special needs.’ For respondents who said they themselves or a family member were affected by birth defects (11.5%), their responses differed statistically (p ≤ 0.0001) from nonaffected respondents, but the leading choices were still ‘birth defects’ (28.5%) and ‘children with special needs’ (27.2%). Condition status, race/ethnicity, gender, income, and education level were all significant predictors of the respondents’ choice of a preferred term. When asked which phrases might be offensive, the top choices were ‘none of the phrases listed’ (37.0%), ‘adverse pregnancy outcomes’ (23.1%), and ‘birth defects’ (21.4%).

CONCLUSIONS

‘Birth defect’ was the preferred term; however, survey participants affected by birth defects responded less positively to the term. Continued dialogue about accepted and appropriate terminology is necessary.


Subjects:
[+]
Article Birth Defect Congenital Abnormalities Congenital Anomaly Female Health Surveys Humans Logistic Models Male Name Perception Pregnancy Terminology Terminology As Topic
Source:
Birth Defects Res A Clin Mol Teratol. 94(12):984-989.
Pubmed ID:
23015510
Pubmed Central ID:
PMC4618792
Document Type:
Journal Article
Funding:
CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
Collection(s):
CDC Public Access
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:675ebdbe2d6bb4bcb85ce9aa7e70b25673627bbb78b301d8d2b398c9b36fea2e
Download URL:
https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/35336/cdc_35336_DS1.pdf
File Type:

Supporting Files

• nihms702833.nxml

  txt

More +