Simplified measurement techniques for health visitors to assess indoor environments

There is research acknowledging that the home environment may be responsible for worsening respiratory conditions, especially for children. The indoor environment is a substantial source of exposure to pollutants e.g. environmental tobacco smoke. Apart from conducting specialised, costly and complex studies a method was needed to understand and assess indoor environments in the UK and how people could be encouraged to improve their indoor environment. In the UK, health visitors (HVs) have traditionally visited homes and from September 2003, the UK government will require HVs to take an even more preventative approach to their work. Potentially, HVs are the ideal candidates to perform simple checks and work with clients to improve their indoor environment. This paper highlights some of the initial work conducted as part of this research. Analysis of existing housing and health data revealed a number of indoor environmental variables that were the most influential on the indoor environment. Analysis showed that the number of variables could be reduced to around 17 out of an original 33 variables. A simplified tool kit will be more cost-effective and less time consuming than the original tool kit and will be suitable for use by HVs on routine home visits.