Dioxins - breast milk survey

Dioxins

Ministry of Health's involvement

Serum dioxin study in Paritutu

Organochlorines Technical Advisory Group

Breastmilk survey

Other agencies involved

The toxic effects of dioxin

Toxicology of dioxin

Advice to medical practitioners

Health Support Survey

Questions and answers

Dioxins
Breast milk survey
New Zealand’s Breast Milk Study - Investigation of Breast Milk for Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs)
Fifth quarterly progress report (1 October 2007-30 December 2007)

General progress

Recruitment of mothers has continued to go slower than anticipated. This is mainly due to the strict inclusion criteria for the study, with the age criteria (20-30 years) and the residence criteria (residence in the same area for the past 5 years) representing the most difficult criteria to meet. Because very few mothers meet all the criteria, this has not only slowed down the recruitment but has also proven to negatively affect the motivation of the midwives to continue to participate in the study.

Due to these difficulties, the study team has discussed additional ways to contact mothers; these are outlined below.

Additional ways to contact mothers

Additional ways of contacting mothers were successful in the Wellington area, and to some extent in the Christchurch area. However recruitment of mothers has remained behind on schedule, particularly for North Canterbury and the Wairarapa.

Other options to contact mothers

Antenatal classes
Contacts were established with teachers of antenatal classes in the different research areas. Subsequently, the study research nurse attended these antenatal classes. The teachers of the classes provided the research nurse the opportunity to briefly introduce the study after which contact information was distributed to the mothers.

News articles in local newspapers
The research team considered that it would be helpful if the study and the reasons for conducting the study were more widely known to the public. For this reason journalists of local newspapers were contacted and asked if a short article explaining the study could feature in the newspaper.

Although the above points involve additional methods for recruiting mothers, they do not represent a radical change in the conduct of the study. The midwives are still closely involved in the recruitment of mothers, although they may not be the first point of contact between the research nurse and the mother (study participant). None of the forms used for the study (invitation letter, information sheet, consent form), have changed.

First visit mothers

Sixteen mothers have had the first visit of the research nurse. During this first visit, the use of the collection bottles was explained.

Second visit mothers

Fourteen mothers have completed breast milk collection and these fourteen milk samples were collected during the second visits of the research nurses.

Extension field work period

Due to the difficulties in recruiting mothers for the study, particularly for North Canterbury and Wairarapa, the research team envisages that an extension of the field work period by six months will be required to complete breast milk collection of 50 mothers.

Page last updated: 28 february 2008