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The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study

Environmental health literacy (EHL) includes knowledge of health effects due to environmental exposure and skills to protect health from environmental risks. This study investigated some aspects about EHL of the Italian adult population. Data were collected through questionnaires (n = 672) and analy...

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Autores principales: Bert, Fabrizio, Gea, Marta, Previti, Christian, Massocco, Gregorio, Lo Moro, Giuseppina, Scaioli, Giacomo, Schilirò, Tiziana, Siliquini, Roberta
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901494
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054486
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author Bert, Fabrizio
Gea, Marta
Previti, Christian
Massocco, Gregorio
Lo Moro, Giuseppina
Scaioli, Giacomo
Schilirò, Tiziana
Siliquini, Roberta
author_facet Bert, Fabrizio
Gea, Marta
Previti, Christian
Massocco, Gregorio
Lo Moro, Giuseppina
Scaioli, Giacomo
Schilirò, Tiziana
Siliquini, Roberta
author_sort Bert, Fabrizio
collection PubMed
description Environmental health literacy (EHL) includes knowledge of health effects due to environmental exposure and skills to protect health from environmental risks. This study investigated some aspects about EHL of the Italian adult population. Data were collected through questionnaires (n = 672) and analysed through multivariable logistic regression models. Results showed that participants with incomplete/insufficient self-perceived knowledge of health effects due to environmental risks verified less information about this topic (adjOR = 0.38 (CI95% 0.25–0.59)/0.09 (0.04–0.21); p < 0.001/<0.001), potentially spreading fake news. The self-perceived exposure to pollution was higher in participants living in towns than in rural areas (small, medium, big towns adjOR = 2.37 (1.41–3.97), 2.10 (1.11–3.96), 3.11 (1.53–6.31); p = 0.001, 0.022, 0.002) and lower in participants with incomplete/insufficient knowledge about pollution effects (adjOR = 0.54 (0.32–0.92)/0.30 (0.13–0.67); p = 0.022/0.004), confirming that knowledge is essential to achieve awareness. Since insufficient self-perceived knowledge of pollution effects was negatively associated with the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours (adjOR = 0.37 (0.15–0.90); p = 0.028), EHL was proven to be a virtuous behaviour promoter. Finally, a lack of institutional support, time and cost were identified as barriers to pro-environmental behaviours. This study provided useful data to design prevention programmes, underlined some barriers to pro-environmental behaviours and highlighted the need to promote attitudes and behaviours aimed at contrasting environmental pollution, thus protecting human health.
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spelling pubmed-100024042023-03-11 The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study Bert, Fabrizio Gea, Marta Previti, Christian Massocco, Gregorio Lo Moro, Giuseppina Scaioli, Giacomo Schilirò, Tiziana Siliquini, Roberta Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Environmental health literacy (EHL) includes knowledge of health effects due to environmental exposure and skills to protect health from environmental risks. This study investigated some aspects about EHL of the Italian adult population. Data were collected through questionnaires (n = 672) and analysed through multivariable logistic regression models. Results showed that participants with incomplete/insufficient self-perceived knowledge of health effects due to environmental risks verified less information about this topic (adjOR = 0.38 (CI95% 0.25–0.59)/0.09 (0.04–0.21); p < 0.001/<0.001), potentially spreading fake news. The self-perceived exposure to pollution was higher in participants living in towns than in rural areas (small, medium, big towns adjOR = 2.37 (1.41–3.97), 2.10 (1.11–3.96), 3.11 (1.53–6.31); p = 0.001, 0.022, 0.002) and lower in participants with incomplete/insufficient knowledge about pollution effects (adjOR = 0.54 (0.32–0.92)/0.30 (0.13–0.67); p = 0.022/0.004), confirming that knowledge is essential to achieve awareness. Since insufficient self-perceived knowledge of pollution effects was negatively associated with the adoption of pro-environmental behaviours (adjOR = 0.37 (0.15–0.90); p = 0.028), EHL was proven to be a virtuous behaviour promoter. Finally, a lack of institutional support, time and cost were identified as barriers to pro-environmental behaviours. This study provided useful data to design prevention programmes, underlined some barriers to pro-environmental behaviours and highlighted the need to promote attitudes and behaviours aimed at contrasting environmental pollution, thus protecting human health. MDPI 2023-03-02 /pmc/articles/PMC10002404/ /pubmed/36901494 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054486 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Bert, Fabrizio
Gea, Marta
Previti, Christian
Massocco, Gregorio
Lo Moro, Giuseppina
Scaioli, Giacomo
Schilirò, Tiziana
Siliquini, Roberta
The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title_full The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title_fullStr The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title_full_unstemmed The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title_short The Environmental Health Literacy of Italian General Population: The SPeRA Cross-Sectional Study
title_sort environmental health literacy of italian general population: the spera cross-sectional study
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10002404/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36901494
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20054486
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