Mother's knowledge for environmental risks and self-awareness for the presence of pollutants in her living area in West and Central Anatolia: a cross-sectional survey.

BACKGROUND: Environmental risk awareness is a key concept to raise awareness and plan future programs for environmental protection. A cross-sectional household survey aimed to find out the presence of environmental hazards next to living area and the mother's knowledge levels about environmental risk factors with their related factors according to district development ranking, and Western and Central Anatolian regions with sampling from rural and urban residence. METHOD: The study was designed with household sampling weighted according to population density in 2008. Data on the demography and health status, dwelling characteristics of the residents are also collected in 2009. In addition, open-ended questions "What does environmental risk/hazard mean?" and "Which environmental risks/hazards are present in your environment?" were asked. The data collected from the survey were analyzed using multivariate binary logistic regression. RESULTS: The sample included 3489 mothers living either in urban or rural areas. Of the mothers, 19.3% did not know what an environmental risk is and 75.7% stated that there was at least one environmental pollutant in their environment. The most commonly perceived risk factor was air pollution (23.0%), which was reported to be present in their living areas by 12.4%. Regions, residence, settlement features of the house, and health status of family members were associated with the perception of environmental risk at a statistically significant level. CONCLUSION: The neighborhood conditions and health status of family associated with the mother's awareness for environmental risk factors. Communication and cooperation between local governments, health institutions, non-governmental organizations and other stakeholders should be strengthened to increase risk awareness.

Environmental risk perception of mothers and presence of risk factors in rural and urban areas in Adana, Turkey.

This cross-sectional study with an open-ended manner aimed (1) to evaluate the environmental risk perception levels of mothers having at least one child and living in Adana and (2) to determine their awareness of the risk factors in their environment. Of mothers, 30.2% did not know the concept of environmental risk factor. Most frequent perceived risks were violence (17%), air pollution (15.5%) and undefined pollution (15%). The most common mentioned problems in their environment were air pollution (9.9%), violence (7.9%) and municipal service problems (8.4%). Mothers living in the urban area reported more violence, air pollution and undefined pollution as environmental threats than those living in the countryside. The place of residence, the education level of the mother and the number of people in the house significantly were related with the risk perception. There is a need for studies in other regions to determine the environmental literacy of mothers.