Factors associated with health risk perception for electromagnetic fields in Taiwan

摘要

Factors associated with health risk perception for electromagnetic fields in Taiwan Mei-Chih Meg Tsengl, 2, Yi-Ping Lin 3, Tsun-Jen Cheng2* 1Department of Psychiatry, National Taiwan University Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan.; 2lnstitute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, College of Public Health, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan; 3lnstitute of Science, Technology, and Society, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Yang Ming University, Taipei, Taiwan, Backgrounds: Health risk perception for electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and the associated factors have been previously reported in Taiwan. Recently, psychological conditions were reported to be associated with the hypersensitivity to electromagnetic field. Aims: We investigated the perceived risks of EMFs and other environmental agents in the general population. Subsequently, the factors associated with the risk perception including psychopathology were investigated. Methods: A total of 1251 adults selected from a nationwide telephone interviewing system database responded to a telephone survey. The interview consisted of questions regarding demographic variables, presence of catastrophic illness, perceived health risks of various environmental agents. Questions assessing participants' psychiatric conditions (Brief Symptom Rating Scale-5) and the degree of sensitivity to EMFs were also included. Results: More than half of the survey respondents considered power lines and mobile phone base stations to affect people's health to a big extent. Higher sensitivity to EMFs, psychopathology, being female, being married, more years of education, and having a catastrophic illness had positive associations with perceived risks of EMF-related environmental sources as well as for all environmental sources combined. Conclusions: Psychopathology may influence on general people's risk perception for electromagnetic fields.