PERCEPTIONS OF RISKS TO CHILDREN'S HEALTH FROM INDOOR AIR POLLUTION AND AN INVESTIGATION OF RESPIRATORY ILLNESS SYMPTOMS FROM INDOOR HEATING WITH A WOODBURNING STOVE

This study explores perceptions of risks to health (POR), risk-taking behavior (RTB), and associated illness from the perspectives of medical anthropology and epidemiology. Specific objectives included investigation of the following: (1) general POR; (2) POR from indoor air pollution (IAP) and parental usage of IAP sources; (3) the relationship between POR and RTB; factors affecting POR and RTB; (4) the construction of risk domains; (5) sources of intracultural variation in POR, RTB, and the partitioning of risk domains; (6) patterns of indoor heating in central Michigan; and (7) respiratory illness symptoms (RIS) in children from exposure to indoor heating with a woodburning stove (WBS).; POR and RTB were investigated in random and ethnographic samples, RIS in a random sample with an internal comparison group, and indoor heating in a random sample. Interview schedules were developed for each phase of inquiry. The instrument used to investigate POR and RTB includes both qualitative and quantitative scales for POR assessment.; Findings of this study provide an ethnography of risk, an inferential analysis of POR/RTB, and a preliminary assessment of risks of RIS from heating with WBS. Parents generally regarded both social and biomedical factors as risks to health with the result that POR were highly variable and context dependent. Indoor heating with WBS (occurring in 12.7% of study area homes) was found to be significantly associated (p .13) RTB-(IAP) by parents, an inconsistency which reflects larger discrepancies between perception and conduct in our society. A model is presented of a network of interrelated factors significantly associated (p < .05) with POR and RTB for IAP (including information, illness experience, confidence in biomedicine, sickness criteria, family-health assessment, ecoethic orientation, and sociodemographic factors). The most significant source of intracultural variation in POR and RTB was socioeconomic status; this factor also affected the perceived healthfulness of the home and the differential localization of risks in sociospatially constructed domains. Summary data are complemented by interview transcripts illustrating parents' conceptions of risks to health and the underlying beliefs, meanings, and needs which sustain different patterns of POR and RTB.