Iowa

From 2010 through 2018, the number of counties served by the Iowa Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (IA CLPPP) has more than doubled from 21 to 51 counties. At the same time, staffing levels, program funding, and resources available to increase blood lead testing and respond to elevated blood lead levels (BLLs) have declined. As a result of reduced capacity and an increased workload, IA CLPPP needed to leverage resources in areas of the state with a high risk of elevated BLLs in children. IA CLPPP determined the best way to maximize their outreach efforts was through a lead awareness campaign targeted to the eight highest risk counties in Iowa.

In 2016, IA CLPPP partnered with the Iowa Environmental Public Health Tracking Program to develop a lead risk formula to identify counties with the highest risk of childhood lead exposure using poverty status, age of housing, blood lead test confirmation rates, and prevalence of elevated BLLs as the risk indicators. A lead awareness campaign was then developed to provide messaging about blood lead testing and preventing lead exposure, with the key message stating, “Check-Up Coming Up! Test Your Toddler for Lead.” The campaign was launched in October 2018 in Polk, Scott, Woodbury, Black Hawk, Linn, Lee, Des Moines, and Clinton Counties. Messaging was delivered via social media, Pandora radio ads, billboards, web banners, and brochures. They were directed toward parents with children between one and three years of age. Following the October campaign’s success, Iowa CLPPP re-launched the campaign in the same eight counties from April through June 2019 without the radio ads.

Since launching the campaign, IA CLPPP’s web page visits increased from 152 in October 2018 to 281 in November 2018 and ultimately reached 605 visits in April 2019, a 298% increase since the start of the campaign. During the first campaign, four of the eight high-risk counties showed increases in blood lead testing rates during 2017–2018: Linn County (14%), Clinton County (9%), Woodbury County (8%), and Scott County (5%).

After the second campaign, blood lead testing data from five counties showed further increases in blood lead testing rates during the three months that the campaign was running, compared to the same period in 2018. The largest increase in testing occurred in Scott County (16%), followed by Woodbury County (12%), Black Hawk County (11%), Des Moines County (9%), and Linn County (2%). Overall, these results indicated that both lead awareness campaigns successfully educated parents and increased blood lead testing rates in Iowa’s high-risk counties.

Funding for this work was made possible in part by the Cooperative Agreement Number [NUE2EH001367] from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The views expressed in this material do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the Department of Health and Human Services;