An Application of Self-Health Risk Assessment among Populations Living in the Vicinity of a Fiber-Cement Roofing Factory

The objective of this study was to assess whether
living in proximity to a roofing fiber cement factory in southern
Thailand was associated with physical, mental, social, and spiritual
health domains measured in a self-reported health risk assessment
(HRA) questionnaire. A cross-sectional study was conducted among
community members divided into two groups: near population (living
within 0-2km of factory) and far population (living within 2-5km of
factory) (N=198). A greater proportion of those living far from the
factory (65.34%) reported physical health problems than the near
group (51.04%) (p =0.032). This study has demonstrated that the near
population group had higher proportion of participants with positive
ratings on mental assessment (30.34%) and social health impacts
(28.42%) than far population group (10.59% and 16.67%,
respectively) (p <0.001). The near population group (29.79%) had
similar proportion of participants with positive ratings in spiritual
health impacts compared with far population group (27.08%). Among
females, but not males, this study demonstrated that a higher
proportion of the near population had a positive summative score for
the self-HRA, which included all four health domain, compared to
the far population (p<0.001 for females; p = 0.154 for males). In
conclusion, this self-HRA of physical, mental, social, and spiritual
health domains reflected the risk perceptions of populations living in
the vicinity of the roofing fiber cement factory. This type of tool can
bring attention to population concerns and complaints in the factory’s
surrounding community. Our findings may contribute to future
development of self-HRA for HIA development procedure in
Thailand.

• Phayong Thepaksorn

• Cement dust
• health impact assessment
• risk assessment
• walk-though survey.

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