Applying the Framework for Academic-Community Partnerships to the University of North Carolina COEC Efforts to Reduce Lead Exposure during Pregnancy

The Community Outreach and Engagement Core at UNC has been funded by NIEHS since 2001. From 2006 to 2013, the COEC coordinated outreach efforts of the statewide Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program. We retrospectively analyzed our efforts to implement an optional federal policy addressing lead exposure during pregnancy using the COEC framework.  In this presentation, we use the framework to describe our efforts at every stage in the process of implementing this change. At the outset, we partnered with local health agencies to respond to an identified need to test pregnant women for lead exposure. Jointly, we developed educational materials and conducted a pilot test with women in two NC counties to better understand the potential risk of lead exposure among pregnant women and to test the utility of the educational materials. We then worked with stakeholders to identify potential avenues for broad implementation, which included incorporating the required lead exposure risk assessments and education in the 2011-12 Maternal Health Agreement Addenda. The Addenda is somewhat fluid and can change on an annual basis. We worked to raise awareness of the issue and to identify opportunities for local health departments to adopt these guidelines as local rules, which are more permanent and would ensure that these education and assessment efforts were sustained over time. Using the framework to analyze our efforts enabled us to better characterize and document our contributions to community change efforts.  Using the framework prospectively would offer opportunities to better assess our impact on community change efforts.