Personal Use of Countermeasures Seen in a Coping Perspective. Could the Development of Expedient Countermeasures as a Repertoire in the Population, Optimise Coping and Promote Positive Outcome Expectancies, When Exposed to a Contamination Threat?

Abstract

The appraisal and use of countermeasures in a rural district of Russia with quite high deposition after the Chernobyl accident is studied from a coping perspective. The field work was done during the summer of 1994, in the Bryansk region. There are important methodological shortages in the study, the sample of respondents is not a random sample and therefore not necessarily representative for the villages covered, and in some parts of the questionnaire the frequency of 'don't know/missing' responses is too high. With these limitations in mind the current study tries to expand the knowledge about reactions to diffuse environmental threats by studying populations as they continue their daily lives living in a contaminated area. The data from interviews with the final net sample of 163 respondents shows that about one in four were users of countermeasures such as, refraining from consumption of natural foods, or radiometric inspection of the food. Of the different countermeasures that were included in the questionnaire, the renunciation of natural products was most frequently employed. Findings indicate that the respondents who used countermeasures had lower levels of radiocesium content in their bodies, they felt more able to influence possible health effects of the accident, and at the same time answered that they were more afraid of possible health effects than the non-users of countermeasures. This higher emotional concern is seen in a perspective of 'realistic anxiety', and the use of countermeasures is related to perceived control and outcome expectancies.