A Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Child Exposure to Indoor Air Pollution: Identifying Possible Target Behaviors

• Published in: Health education & behavior Vol. 31; no. 3; pp. 306 - 317
• Main Authors: Barnes, Brendon R., Mathee, Angela, Shafritz, Lonna B., Krieger, Laurie, Zimicki, Susan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Thousand Oaks, CA Sage Publications 01.06.2004; SAGE Publications; Sage; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Air pollution; Air Pollution, Indoor; Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding; Behavior; Behavior Modification; Biological and medical sciences; Child Behavior; Child Health; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Environment. Living conditions; Environmental Exposure - prevention & control; Environmental Influences; Family Environment; Female; Focus Groups; Foreign Countries; Fuels; Health Behavior; Health Promotion; Health risk assessment; Human exposure; Humans; Indoor air quality; Infant; Intervention; Interviews; Male; Medical sciences; Mothers; Observation; Pollution; Poverty; Public health. Hygiene; Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine; Rural Areas; South Africa; Young Children; South Africa; United States; North America; America; behavior; indoor air pollution; respiratory health; Human; Prevention; Action; Target; Indoor pollution; Air pollution; Exposure; Identification; Child; Public health
• ISSN: 1090-1981; 1552-6127
• DOI: 10.1177/1090198103260630

Indoor air pollution has been causally linked to acute lower respiratory infections in children younger than 5. The aim of this study was to identify target behaviors for a behavioral intervention to reduce child exposure to indoor air pollution by attempting to answer two research questions: Which behaviors are protective of child respiratory health in the study context? and Which behaviors do mothers recommend to reduce their children's exposure to indoor air pollution? Observations and interviews were conducted with 67 mother-child combinations. The authors recommend that four behavioral clusters should be considered for the main intervention. These are to improve stove maintenance practices, to increase the duration that two ventilation sources are opened while a fire is burning, to reduce the time that children spend close to burning fires, and to reduce the duration of solid fuel burning.