Prevalence of Residential Dampness and Mold Exposure in a University Student Population

Lanthier-Veilleux, Mathieu; Généreux, Mélissa; Baron, Geneviève

doi:10.3390/ijerph13020194

Cited by 10 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Materials and methods have been described in detail in a previously published article [17]. This section will summarize key elements of the methods, including questionnaire development, variables and statistical analyses that are specific to this paper.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method has been described in detail elsewhere [17]. The study population consists of students registered at the Université de Sherbrooke during the 2014 winter trimester.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Students were contacted via their university email in early March 2014. To maximize response rate, many strategies proposed by Dillman [19,20] were applied as previously described [17]. When considering the target population ( n = 26,676) and after correction for ineligibility among respondents (2.5%), the final participation rate was 8.1% (2097/26,009).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As shown in our previously published conceptual model [17], three dependent variables were studied: asthma-like symptoms, allergic rhinitis, and respiratory infections. As atopy could be widely underdiagnosed [16,29], self-declared asthma-like symptoms, rather than physician-diagnosed asthma, were considered for the main analyses.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Populations exposed to dampness or mold are characterized by low income, tenancy, and residential mobility, three factors that are common among university students [7,17]. Two recent North American studies conducted in Quebec (Canada) and in Utah (USA) revealed that more than one in three university students are exposed to dampness or mold (36% and 39%, respectively) [8,17]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Respiratory Diseases in University Students Associated with Exposure to Residential Dampness or Mold

Lanthier-Veilleux

Baron

Généreux

2016

IJERPH

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University students are frequently exposed to residential dampness or mold (i.e., visible mold, mold odor, dampness, or water leaks), a well-known contributor to asthma, allergic rhinitis, and respiratory infections. This study aims to: (a) describe the prevalence of these respiratory diseases among university students; and (b) examine the independent contribution of residential dampness or mold to these diseases. An online survey was conducted in March 2014 among the 26,676 students registered at the Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec, Canada). Validated questions and scores were used to assess self-reported respiratory diseases (i.e., asthma-like symptoms, allergic rhinitis, and respiratory infections), residential dampness or mold, and covariates (e.g., student characteristics). Using logistic regressions, the crude and adjusted odd ratios between residential dampness or mold and self-reported respiratory diseases were examined. Results from the participating students (n = 2097; response rate: 8.1%) showed high prevalence of allergic rhinitis (32.6%; 95% CI: 30.6–34.7), asthma-like symptoms (24.0%; 95% CI: 22.1–25.8) and respiratory infections (19.4%; 95% CI: 17.7–21.2). After adjustment, exposure to residential dampness or mold was associated with allergic rhinitis (OR: 1.25; 95% CI: 1.01–1.55) and asthma-like symptoms (OR: 1.70; 95% CI: 1.37–2.11), but not with respiratory infections (OR: 1.07; 95% CI: 0.85–1.36). Among symptomatic students, this exposure was also associated with uncontrolled and burdensome respiratory symptoms (p < 0.01). University students report a high prevalence of allergic rhinitis, asthma-like symptoms and respiratory infections. A common indoor hazard, residential dampness or mold, may play a role in increasing atopic respiratory diseases and their suboptimal control in young adults. These results emphasize the importance for public health organizations to tackle poor housing conditions, especially amongst university students who should be considered “at-risk”.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This method has been described in detail elsewhere [17]. The study population consists of students registered at the Université de Sherbrooke during the 2014 winter trimester.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Respiratory Diseases in University Students Associated with Exposure to Residential Dampness or Mold

Lanthier-Veilleux

Baron

Généreux

2016

IJERPH

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Psychometric validation and cultural adaptation of the Italian medical student stressor questionnaire

et al. 2020

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Medical students encounter specific stressors that can lead to higher levels of psychological distress compared to their similar aged counterparts who study other subjects. The Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire (MSSQ) was developed to specifically identify stressors among medical students as well as measure the intensity of stress caused by the stressors. However, no Italian version has been validated to date. The aim of this study was to develop an Italian version of the MSSQ (MSSQ-I) and to assess its psychometric properties. The MSSQ has been translated and culturally validated into Italian. All medical students from the University of Brescia were asked to participate in a web-survey in which they were asked to complete the MSSQ-I. For the analysis of the stability over time, participating students were asked to complete again the MSSQ-I after about one month. Among 1754 medical students, 964 completed the MSSQ-I for the validation analyses. A first Confirmatory Factor Analysis and a subsequent Explanatory Factor Analysis outlined a slightly modified factor structure of the scale with five factors instead of six as in the original scale. The internal consistency on the overall scale was high (α = 0.94), as well as the internal consistency of each of the new factors: (α > 0.83 for the first four factors and α = 0.67 for the fifth). External validity analysis confirmed moderate/high concurrent validity. These results suggest that the MSSQ-I can be used as a tool to identify stressors among Italian medical students, although further research is needed to confirm its individual test-retest reliability.

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Home dampness-related exposures increase the risk of common colds among preschool children in Shanghai, China: Modified by household ventilation

Sun

Huang

Zou

et al. 2017

Building and Environment

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a b s t r a c tFew studies have estimated the effects of dampness-related exposures and its interaction effects with poor household ventilation on common colds of preschool children. During April 2011eApril 2012, we conducted a cross-sectional survey on home environment and childhood health and collected 13,335 parents-reported questionnaires of 4e6 year-old children in Shanghai, China. In this paper, we investigated associations between the incidence and duration of common colds among these children during the past 12 months before the survey and frequency of opening windows, as well as household dampness-related exposures (indicated by six dampness indicators). Significantly higher incidence (!3 times) and longer duration (!2 weeks) of common cold were found among children with than without these dampness exposures (p-value <0.01 for mold spots and p-value <0.001 for all other indicators). The number of dampness-related indicators had a positive and strong dose-response relationship with common colds (p-trend <0.01). Low frequency of ventilation was also a risk factor for children common colds. After adjusted for the potential confounders in the multiple logistic regression analyses, all dampness-related indicators were significantly associated with the increased odds of common colds and the highest odds ratios was 1.21 (95% CI: 1.16e1.27). We also found that dampness-related exposures and household ventilation habits (p-value for interaction <0.001) had a strong interaction effect on the incidence and duration of common cold. The stratified analysis of ventilation condition displays that the influence of dampness-related exposures has been modified by ventilation. Therefore, good household ventilation habits may have an effect of modification for dampness-related exposures.

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Prevalence of Residential Dampness and Mold Exposure in a University Student Population

Cited by 10 publications

References 30 publications

Respiratory Diseases in University Students Associated with Exposure to Residential Dampness or Mold

Respiratory Diseases in University Students Associated with Exposure to Residential Dampness or Mold

Psychometric validation and cultural adaptation of the Italian medical student stressor questionnaire

Home dampness-related exposures increase the risk of common colds among preschool children in Shanghai, China: Modified by household ventilation

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