National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), PO Box 1, 3720 BA, Bilthoven, The Netherlands.
Smart Sensor Systems group, Faculty of Technology, Innovation, and Society, The Hague University of Applied Sciences, Rotterdamseweg 137, 2628 AL, Delft, The Netherlands.
BMC Public Health. 2021 Jan 22;21(1):198. doi: 10.1186/s12889-021-10197-x.
Particulate matter (PM) exposure is an important health risk, both in daily life and in the workplace. It causes respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and results in 800,000 premature deaths per year worldwide. In earlier research, we assessed workers' information needs regarding workplace PM exposure, the properties and effects of PM, and the rationale behind various means of protection. We also concluded that workers do not always receive appropriate risk communication tools with regards to PM, and that their PM knowledge appears to be fragmented and incomplete.
We considered several concepts for use as an educational material based on evaluation criteria: ease of use, costs, appropriateness for target audiences and goals, interactivity, implementation issues, novelty, and speed. We decided to develop an educational folder, which can be used to inform employees about the properties, effects and prevention methods concerning PM. Furthermore, we decided on a test setup of a more interactive way of visualisation of exposure to PM by means of exposimeters. For the development of the folder, we based the information needs on our earlier mental models-based research. We adjusted the folder based on the results of ten semi-structured interviews evaluating its usability.
The semi-structured interviews yielded commentaries and suggestions for further improvement, which resulted in a number of alterations to the folder. However, in most cases the folder was deemed satisfactory.
Based on this study, the folder we developed is suitable for a larger-scale experiment and a practical test. Further research is needed to investigate the efficacy of the folder and the application of the exposimeter in a PM risk communication system.
颗粒物（PM）暴露是日常生活和工作场所中的一个重要健康风险。它会导致呼吸道和心血管疾病，每年导致全球 80 万人过早死亡。在早期的研究中，我们评估了工人对工作场所 PM 暴露、PM 的特性和影响以及各种保护手段的基本原理的信息需求。我们还得出结论，工人并不总是收到有关 PM 的适当风险沟通工具，并且他们的 PM 知识似乎零碎且不完整。
我们考虑了几个概念，作为评估标准的基础上用于教育材料：易用性、成本、适用于目标受众和目标、交互性、实施问题、新颖性和速度。我们决定开发一个教育文件夹，用于告知员工有关 PM 的特性、影响和预防方法的信息。此外，我们决定采用更具交互性的暴露计可视化暴露方式进行测试设置。为了开发该文件夹，我们根据之前基于心智模型的研究确定了信息需求。我们根据十次半结构化访谈的结果对其可用性进行评估，对文件夹进行了调整。
半结构化访谈产生了进一步改进的意见和建议，这导致了对文件夹的一些修改。但是，在大多数情况下，文件夹都被认为是令人满意的。
基于这项研究，我们开发的文件夹适合更大规模的实验和实际测试。需要进一步研究来调查文件夹和暴露计在 PM 风险沟通系统中的应用的效果。
