Are environmental medicine problems relevant in Switzerland?
OBJECTIVE
In Switzerland, the prevalence of health problems attributed to environmental exposures is unknown, and views differ regarding its magnitude. In the present study we investigated the frequency of environmentally related health problems amongst the patients of Swiss sentinel physicians and assessed symptoms and suspected environmental exposures.


METHODS
During 2002, nearly 250 "Swiss Sentinel Surveillance Network" physicians were asked to record the number of patients presenting with environmental health problems and to complete a questionnaire inquiring about suspected environmental exposures and health problems. Physicians offering "alternative" medical therapies also participated in the study. The results were compared with the experience of a Basel University pilot project which evaluated patients with environment-related health problems simultaneously from the medical, psychiatric and environmental viewpoint.


RESULTS
354 environment-related consultations were reported by 72 physicians, corresponding to 0.03% of all sentinel-physician consultations. There were considerable differences both within the group of Sentinella physicians, and between physicians offering "alternative" medical therapies and the Sentinella physicians, in the frequency of environmentally-related consultations, the character of the reported symptoms and the suspected environmental exposures.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, environmental medicine consultations in general practice were rare. However, experience of the environmental medicine pilot project showed that concerned persons seek help from various health care providers and from environmental agencies. Effective treatment should include counselling by medical, psychiatric and environmental professionals.
Huss
Anke
A
Institute for Social and Preventive Medicine, Basel, Switzerland. anke.huss@unibas.ch
Küchenhoff
Joachim
J
Bircher
Andreas
A
Niederer
Markus
M
Tremp
Josef
J
Waeber
Roger
R
Braun-Fahrländer
Charlotte
C
D004781:Environmental Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D018571:Sentinel Surveillance; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013557:Switzerland