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Teacher respiratory health symptoms in relation to school and home environment

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International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Few studies have evaluated teachers’ respiratory health, especially its relationship with school/home environment, and school policies. This study assessed asthma and smoking prevalence among teachers in Romania, teacher’s perception and knowledge of the school environment, policies and asthma management, and how school and home environment affected asthma, allergy, and respiratory infection symptoms.

Methods

This cross-sectional study obtained information from 104 Romanian teachers utilizing teacher questionnaire data for Romania only, as part of the Schools Indoor Pollution and Health: Observatory Network in Europe (SINPHONIE) study, a multicenter European research project conducted between 2010 and 2012. The SINPHONIE questionnaire collected comprehensive information on school and home environment, respiratory symptoms, smoking, and school policies. We used unconditional logistic regression analysis to examine environment–outcome relationships while controlling for socio-demographics and co-exposures.

Results

Our results showed the prevalence of asthma-like symptoms and smoking among teachers in Romania was higher than in other SINPHONIE schools and among US teachers. Factors statistically associated with asthma, allergy, and respiratory infection (all p < 0.05) include perception of health related to poor air quality in school, inappropriate cleaning of ventilation systems, dwelling proximity to busy traffic, and multiple school/home exposures. We also found lack of asthma management and environmental policies in the investigated Romanian schools.

Conclusion

We concluded that multiple school and home environmental factors were related to respiratory and allergic symptoms. High asthma burden and smoking are important public health problems in Romania. Future studies including larger sample size and exposure measurements are needed to confirm our findings.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by SINPHONIE (Schools Indoor Pollution and Health-Observatory Network in Europe) project carried out under contract (contract SANCO/2009/C4/04), for the European Commission, and funded by the European Parliament. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders. The funders played no role in the study design, data collection, analysis and interpretation, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit this article for publication. We would also like to thank the participants, whose generous time and effort made this study possible.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Health Science, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1 University Place, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA

    Shao Lin, Ziqiang Lin & Qiaoxuan Lin

  2. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1 University Place, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA

    Shao Lin & Wayne R. Lawrence

  3. Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Arts and Sciences, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1400 Washington Avenue, Albany, NY, 12222, USA

    Ziqiang Lin

  4. Department of Biomedical Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, State University of New York, 1 University Place, Rensselaer, NY, 12144, USA

    Melissa Francois

  5. Health Department, Environmental Health Center, 58 Busuiocului Street, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Iulia A. Neamtiu & Eugen S. Gurzau

  6. Faculty of Environmental Science and Engineering, Babes-Bolyai University, 30 Fantanele Street, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Iulia A. Neamtiu

  7. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Jinan, 510632, Guangzhou, China

    Qiaoxuan Lin

  8. Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC), Ady Endre ut 9-11, 2000, Szentendre, Hungary

    Eva Csobod

  9. Cluj School of Public Health-College of Political, Administrative and Communication Sciences, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj Napoca, Romania

    Eugen S. Gurzau

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  1. Shao Lin
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  2. Wayne R. Lawrence
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  3. Ziqiang Lin
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  6. Qiaoxuan Lin
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  8. Eugen S. Gurzau
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Correspondence to Eugen S. Gurzau.

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Lin, S., Lawrence, W.R., Lin, Z. et al. Teacher respiratory health symptoms in relation to school and home environment. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 90, 725–739 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1235-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-017-1235-x

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