healthmedicinet

In Finland, around one in five persons said they had symptoms brought on by indoor air. Some of them said that the symptoms had no impact on their ability to operate, while a small percentage believed that the symptoms had a major negative impact on their ability to function.n

An investigation by the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, and the University of Helsinki, which was published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, sheds light on this.nn

Approximately two in three people suffering from symptoms experienced at most mild functional impairment due to symptoms. The more severe the respondents found the functional impairment due to symptoms, the more common were also many diagnosed illnesses, the person’s perception of poor health, diverse symptoms across the body and sensitivity to different environmental factors.n

“Persons suffering from difficult symptoms and severe functional impairment make up a small part of those getting symptoms from indoor air. They need special support because they have also accumulated many other factors impairing their functional capacity,” says Senior Specialist Sanna Selinheimo from the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.n

The differences in everyday life and work.n

“The results support earlier research results in that, in addition to indoor air impurities, there are also many other factors behind the severity of indoor air,” says Professor Juha Pekkanen from THL and the University of Helsinki.n

The study is based on the National Indoor Air Survey 2018, to which 4,997 Finnish-speaking people aged between 25 and 64 years and living in Finland (excl. ?land) were selected in a random sample. Of them, 1,797 responded to the survey.

Provided by
Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare

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