Abstract
OBJECTIVES: Toxic chemicals can harm children's brain development, but the public's understanding of these harmful impacts is largely unknown. People's knowledge of toxic chemicals and their awareness of how to reduce children's exposure was examined. This study also assessed whether a video was efficacious in increasing knowledge about toxic chemicals and brain development and encouraging behavioral change to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals. METHODS: 15,594 participants of child-bearing age (18-45 years old) from five countries (Canada, United States, United Kingdom, India, and Australia) were surveyed via CloudResearch's Prime Panels®. After completing a baseline survey, Prevention of Toxic Chemicals in the Environment for Children Tool (PRoTECT), participants were randomly assigned to watch a knowledge translation video (experimental group) or serve as a control group. Next, participants were asked about barriers and intentions to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals. After 6 weeks, a subset (n = 4,842) of participants were surveyed with PRoTECT and asked whether they modified behaviors to reduce exposure to toxic chemicals or plan to speak to their healthcare provider (HCP) about toxic chemicals. RESULTS: Participants expressed strong preferences for lowering exposures and preventing disabilities. Participants who knew more about the impact of toxic chemicals on children's health were more likely to prefer investing in prevention and reducing their exposures. Participants who viewed the video showed significantly greater changes in PRoTECT scores. At the 6-week follow-up, no differences in behavioral changes were observed by group assignment, but two-thirds of all participants reported making changes to reduce their exposures and half intended to speak with their HCP. CONCLUSION: There were significant differences in knowledge and preferences by group assignment, but systemic barriers, such as cost of non-toxic products and difficulty determining how and where to buy them, hindered people from making changes to reduce their exposures to toxic chemicals.