title: [Study of self-reported health of people living near point sources of environmental pollution: a review. First part: health indicators].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Epidemiological studies have investigated the health impacts of local sources of environmental pollution using as an outcome variable self-reported health, reflecting the overall perception interviewed people have of their own health. This work aims at analyzing the advantages and the results of this approach. A first step focused on describing the indicators.
  
  
  METHODS
  The literature on indicators of self-reported health was reviewed, leading to a discussion on data collection, selection of health effects, data processing, and construction of indicators.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The literature review concerned 51 articles. The use of self-reported health indicators allowed the studies to take into account the health concerns and complaints of populations exposed to environmental pollution. Various indicators of self-reported health were used in the studies. They measured physical, psychological and general dimensions of health. Standardized questionnaires were used less often than ad hoc questionnaires (78% of studies) developed to fit the needs of a given study. Three standardized questionnaires were used more frequently: the MOS Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) to measure general health perceptions, the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), and the Symptoms Checklist (SCL-90) to measure psychological distress.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The choice of self-reported health indicators is a compromise between specificity of the studied health issues within a given environment and standardization of the questionnaires used to measure them. Such standardization is necessary to ensure the validity and the reliability of the information collected across time and situations. The psychometric properties of the measuring questionnaires are rarely estimated or verified when they are used.
authors.affiliation: Institut de veille sanitaire (InVS), 12, rue du Val-d'Osne, 94415 Saint-Maurice cedex, France. c.daniau@invs.sante.fr
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Daniau
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dor
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Eilstein
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lefranc
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Empereur-Bissonnet
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dab
mesh_terms: D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000032:analysis / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006262:Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Bien-être; Environmental health; Epidemiology; Health indicators; Health security; Indicateur de santé; Pollution; Santé déclarée; Santé environnementale; Self-reported health; Sécurité sanitaire; Well-being; Épidémiologie