Parental worry about indoor air quality and student symptom reporting in primary schools with or without indoor air quality problems

Abstract

Poor indoor air quality (IAQ) in schools is related to increased symptom reporting in students. We investigated whether parental worry about school IAQ influences this association. Data came from survey collected from five Finnish primary schools with observed IAQ problems and five control schools. Parents (n = 1868) of primary school students reported worry about IAQ in schools and symptoms of their children. Associations between observed IAQ problems, worry, and five symptom scores (ie, respiratory, lower respiratory, eye, skin, and general symptoms) were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression and mediation analysis. Parents were on average more worried in schools with observed IAQ problems. Observed IAQ problems were strongly associated with increased worry and all symptoms under study (unadjusted ORs ranged between 1.48 [95% CI 1.48-2.16] and 2.70 [95% CI 1.52-5.17]).Parental worry was associated with all symptoms (unadjusted ORs ranged between 2.49 [95% CI 1.75-3.60] and 4.92 [95% CI 2.77-9.40]). Mediation analyses suggested that parental worry might partially explain the association between observed IAQ problems and symptom reporting (proportion mediated ranged between 67% and 84% for the different symptoms). However, prospective studies are needed to assess causal relationships between observed IAQ problems, worry, and symptom reporting in schools. K E Y W O R D Sconcern, Indoor air quality, primary school, psychosocial, respiratory symptoms, worry S U PP O RTI N G I N FO R M ATI O NAdditional supporting information may be found online in the Supporting Information section at the end of the article. How to cite this article: Nissilä J-J, Savelieva K, Lampi J, Ung-Lanki S, Elovainio M, Pekkanen J. Parental worry about indoor air quality and student symptom reporting in primary schools with or without indoor air quality problems. Indoor Air. 2019;29:865-873. https ://doi.

Psychosocial factors and indoor environmental quality in respiratory symptom reports of pupils: a cross-sectional study in Finnish schools

“…Among psychosocial factors, worry about school IEQ was consistently associated with higher respiratory symptom reporting in all three main samples, as well as in the combined sample of parent-child pairs where children reported psychosocial factors themselves and parents reported symptoms for their children. In line with previous studies 26 showing that parents worried about school IEQ reported their children having symptoms more often than non-worried parents, we found that also pupils who were worried about school IEQ tend to report more respiratory symptoms independently of their individual and allergic characteristics, other psychosocial factors, and school IEQ. One possible explanation for this is that worries about health threats may change the way people perceive and interpret somatic information.…”

“…In schools with poor IEQ, parents who were worried about school IEQ reported more symptoms for their children than not worried parents. Although it has been suggested that worry might act as a potential explanatory variable on the pathway between school IEQ and symptom reporting, 26 we cannot eliminate the possibility that pupils experience more symptoms in schools with poor IEQ which in turn induces more worries. Also, findings in parental data should be interpreted with caution due to the low response rate of parents (less than 20%) and possible self-selection bias.…”

“…The indoor air questionnaires sometimes ask whether symptoms are related to a certain indoor environment or even get worse in a certain environment. 28 It is difficult for some respondents to assess this, 29 and symptoms that are attributed to a specific environment may also produce responses more related to this environment, 26 although this has not been studied. We have previously found that the associations between school IEQ and pupils' symptoms were stronger in magnitude when symptoms were reported in relation to the school environment compared with symptoms reported without such relation.…”

“…29 However, it has not been addressed whether the associations between psychosocial factors and symptom reporting differ when symptoms are asked in relation to being in school and when symptoms are experienced in general (ie, without relation to any specific environment). Based on previous studies, 25 26 it might be possible that pupils who are more worried about school IEQ, less satisfied with the school environment, or have higher neuroticism would report more symptoms, especially in relation to the school environment.…”

The Combined Effect of Poor Perceived Indoor Environmental Quality and Psychosocial Stressors on Long-Term Sickness Absence in the Workplace: A Follow-Up Study

“…In addition, special attention should be given to open, respectful, and regular organizational communication [44]. IE problems raise concerns [45], and being worried may also affects people's well-being [46].…”