A two-week monitoring of self-reported arousal, worry and attribution among persons with annoyance attributed to electrical equipment and smells.
Non-patients attributing annoyance to either smells (smell annoyed; SA, n= 29) or electrical equipment (electrically annoyed; EA, n= 17), or both (generally annoyed; GA, n= 38), were monitored for 2 weeks through daily self-ratings of arousal (stress), sleep disturbances, health complaints, worry about hypersensitivity reactions, avoidance behaviors, and attributions of health complaints to electrical equipment and smells. In parallel, a demographically matched reference group was followed (n= 56). GA persons reported higher arousal (stress), more subjective health complaints, and more sleep disturbances than the other groups. About 60% in the GA and EA groups reported intentional avoidance behavior, compared to 31% in the SA group and 2% of the referents. Worry and attribution to environmental factors was also more frequent among GA persons than in the other groups. Thus, even at sub-clinical levels, environmental annoyance generalized to several triggers seems to be associated with behaviors commonly observed among patients with idiopathic environmental intolerance.
Persson
Roger
R
Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Lund University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. rpe@nrcwe.dk
Carlsson Eek
Frida
F
Osterberg
Kai
K
Orbaek
Palle
P
Karlson
Björn
B
D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001143:Arousal; D001290:Attitude; D004560:Electricity; D004864:Equipment and Supplies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009812:Odorants; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000175:diagnosis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013997:Time Factors