Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.
Int J Public Health. 2010 Oct;55(5):507-12. doi: 10.1007/s00038-009-0110-2. Epub 2009 Dec 18.
The proportion of general practitioners (GPs) in Germany who assume health impacts of electromagnetic fields (EMF) is assessed. Moreover, factors associated with this risk perception are examined.
A 7% random sample was drawn from online lists of all the GPs working in Germany. 1,867 doctors received a long version of a self-administered postal questionnaire about EMF and health (response rate 23.3%), 928 doctors received a short version (response rate 49.1%).
37.3% of responders to the short and 57.5% of responders to the long questionnaire agreed "that there are persons whose health complaints are caused by EMF when legal limit values are met". A late responder analysis for the survey with the short questionnaire led to a still lower estimate of 29% for GPs believing in health-relevant effects of EMF.
About a third of German GPs associate EMF with health complaints and thus deviate considerably from current scientific knowledge. To avoid a strong selection bias in the surveys of the perception of EMF risks, use of short questionnaires and late responder analysis are recommended.
评估德国全科医生（GP）对电磁场（EMF）健康影响的认知比例。此外，还研究了与这种风险认知相关的因素。
从德国所有全科医生的在线名单中抽取了 7%的随机样本。1867 名医生收到了一份关于 EMF 和健康的长版自我管理邮寄问卷（回应率为 23.3%），928 名医生收到了短版问卷（回应率为 49.1%）。
短问卷的回答者中有 37.3%，长问卷的回答者中有 57.5%同意“当法定限值达到时，有些人的健康投诉是由 EMF 引起的”。对短问卷调查的延迟应答者分析得出，相信 EMF 对健康有影响的全科医生比例仍较低，为 29%。
约三分之一的德国全科医生将 EMF 与健康投诉联系起来，因此与当前的科学知识有很大的偏差。为了避免在 EMF 风险感知调查中出现严重的选择偏差，建议使用短问卷和延迟应答者分析。
