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.