title: [Environmental concern of clients of an environmental medicine counseling center].
abstract: Environmental apprehensiveness and anxiety are often regarded as being responsible for unspecific health complaints in the context of environmental exposures if toxicological findings cannot explain them. However, there is a lack of empirical data on the influence exercised by environmental anxiety. A German adaptation of the American Environmental Worry Scale [1] was developed. The questionnaire has been used in a study on clients of the Consultation Centre for Environmental Medicine (CCEM). These clients (n = 51) were compared with a control group of clients of a vaccination centre (n = 238). As expected, the clients of the CCEM showed higher values of environmental worry. Moreover, the clients of the CCEM revealed scores of trait-anxiety which were more than one standard deviation above the level of the reference group. Environmental worry was weakly associated with a higher degree of trait-anxiety.
authors.affiliation: Medizinisches Institut für Umwelthygiene, Heinrich-Heine-Universität, Düsseldorf.
authors.forename: H F
authors.initials: HF
authors.lastname: Neuhann
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Hodapp
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Reinschmidt
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D001294:Attitude to Health; D018876:Environmental Illness / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology*; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010555:Personality Inventory