Frequently Asked Questions
About Reportable Infectious Diseases
What are reportable infectious diseases?
Health care providers are required to report certain infections to their state’s health department. This is because these infections could be spread to others or because they cause serious illness. The health department keeps this information in a secure location to protect each patient’s privacy.
Why do we ask for reportable infectious disease information from the state health department?
During the phone interview, we asked you about some infections and illnesses that you might have had right before or during pregnancy. A larger number of infections are reported to the state health department. The information provided can be used to study how many different infectious diseases may play a role in why some babies have birth defects.
What if I did not report an infection during my phone interview?
The information that we get from the state health department is for a longer time period than the interview. We will ask for information on reportable infections from two years before your pregnancy through the end of your pregnancy.
What do I get for participating?
After we receive your signed consent form, we will mail you a $10 gift card as a token of appreciation for your time and interest.
Will you have access to my medical records?
No, we will not have access to your medical records. The consent form only gives us permission to request your information from the state health department about certain reportable infections. We do not receive any other medical information.
Will I receive any of the test results?
No, you will not receive any test results from BD-STEPS. If you would like to know your test results, please contact your health care provider.
Will I receive any updates on the results of BD-STEPS?
We publish an e-newsletter that reports study results without any names attached. This newsletter can be found on our website at www.bdsteps.org. This newsletter lets families know about findings from our study.
The consent form mentions sharing my infectious disease information. What does this mean?
This means that we might combine some of the information we collected about infectious diseases with data from other studies on birth defects and other pregnancy problems. Your name will not be included in the databases. Only researchers who have permission to use the data for research on birth defects and other pregnancy problems will be given access. Researchers will be required to use strong security measures.
What if I change my address or telephone number?
Please let us know if your address or telephone number changes so that we can invite you to participate in future parts of BD-STEPS.
What if I no longer want to be part of BD-STEPS?
You may ask to be removed from BD-STEPS at any time. After receiving your request, we will remove your information from all future studies. However, we cannot remove information from studies that started before the request was received.
Contact Information. You can call us at 1-888-743-7324 or email us at [email protected]. For more information about the study, please visit our website at www.bdsteps.org. To reach local researchers, use the following information:
| File Type | application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document |
| Author | Godfred Cato, Shana (CDC/ONDIEH/NCBDDD) |
| File Modified | 0000-00-00 |
| File Created | 2021-03-25 |