Perception of Worry of Harm from Air Pollution: Results from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS)

Overview

Journal BMC Public Health

Publisher Biomed Central

Specialty Public Health

Date 2022 Jun 25

PMID 35752789

Authors

Samantha Ammons

Hayley Aja

Armen A Ghazarian

Gabriel Y Lai

Gary L Ellison

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: Air pollution exposure has been associated with a multitude of diseases and poses a significant concern to public health. For targeted environmental risk communication and interventions to be effective, it is important to correctly identify characteristics associated with worry of harm from air pollution.

Methods: Using responses from 3,630 participants of the Health Information National Trends Survey 4 Cycle 2, we assessed worry of harm from exposure to indoor (IAP) and outdoor (OAP) air pollution separately. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to calculate odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals.

Results: Hispanics were more likely to worry about harm from IAP and OAP compared to non-Hispanic whites. Participants who lived in metropolitan counties were more likely to worry about harm from IAP and OAP compared to those who lived in rural counties. Finally, those who believed their chance of getting cancer was high were more likely to worry about harm from IAP and OAP compared to those who thought their likelihood of getting cancer was low.

Conclusions: Worry of harm from IAP and OAP varied across sociodemographic and cancer-related characteristics. Public health professionals should consider these characteristics when developing targeted environmental risk communication and interventions.

Citing Articles

Air pollution exposure and mammographic breast density in Tehran, Iran: a cross-sectional study.

Eslami B, Alipour S, Omranipour R, Naddafi K, Naghizadeh M, Shamsipour M Environ Health Prev Med. 2022; 27:28.

PMID: 35786683 PMC: 9283909. DOI: 10.1265/ehpm.22-00027.

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