Abstract
The purpose of this study is to clarify the level of awareness of the theory of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) and the results of Japanese birth cohort studies among midwives and nurses involved in perinatal care, and to identify the educational methods preferred by them. For the introduction of results from the Japanese birth cohort studies, we have intentionally selected 38 papers from the Japan Environment and Children's Study (JECS). The study was conducted from March to June 2023 at three perinatal medical facilities and one university that are cooperating with the JECS. The participants consisted of 39 nursing professionals who had cooperated with JECS (cooperative group), 49 nursing professionals who had never cooperated with the JECS (no-cooperative group), and 18 students in a university midwife training course. The frequency of participants who were not aware of the DOHaD theory was 56.4% in the cooperative group, 63.3% in the no-cooperative group, and 66.7% in the students. The frequency of knowing three or fewer results of JECS was 94.9% in the cooperative group, 93.8% in the no-cooperative group, and 100% in the students. There were no significant differences in the level of awareness in all the above items between the cooperative group and the no-cooperative group, as compared by logistic regression analysis. Overall, the most preferred method for increasing awareness were seminar at hospitals (84.9%).
