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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
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The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA |
Janet Primomo, PhD, RN, Nursing Program, University of Washington, Tacoma, 1900 Commerce Street, Box 358421, Tacoma, WA 98402, 253 692-4475, jprimomo@u.washington.edu and Ruth Sechena, MD, MPH, UW Department of Environmental Health, Unversity of Washington, 4225 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105.
This study is an evaluation of the Master Home Environmentalist Training Program, (MHE), an American Lung Association of Washington community-based program designed to reduce household pollutants. Environmental pollutants in the home (dust, lead, molds, biological contaminants and chemicals) that trigger asthma and other health problems are potentially mutable factors that may be reduced by community-level health education.
A prime focus of the MHE program is to help people reduce their exposure to indoor pollutants through the enlistment of trained volunteers who, when requested, evaluate homes and educate residents about how to reduce exposure. MHE volunteers receive 40 hours of training on indoor pollution, communication, outreach skills, and cultural diversity. In this study, changes in MHE volunteer attitudes and their adoption of preventive environmental health behavior changes over a period of one-year following completion of their MHE training are described. Motivation for volunteering, occurrence of asthma and allergy symptoms, and preventive behavior adoption were queried. Pre-training and post-training (3, 6 and 12 months) self-administered questionnaires were used.
Participants were 60 volunteers who completed training in 1998 and 1999. Preliminary results suggest that volunteers were highly motivated to use preventive behaviors (i.e. removing shoes, vacuuming more often, using pillow and mattress covers) after training.
This study adds to the body of knowledge about the effectiveness of volunteerism for promoting attitude and behavior changes related to environmental health. It also describes a unique health education program that includes the provision of no-cost home environment assessments.
Learning Objectives:
Keywords: Community Health Programs, Environmental Health Hazards
Related Web page: www.alaw.org
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: American Lung Association of Washington
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.