Silent Spring Institute, Newton, Massachusetts, USA.
Public Health Institute, Oakland, California, USA.
Environ Health Perspect. 2021 Nov;129(11):117005. doi: 10.1289/EHP9072. Epub 2021 Nov 12.
Study participants want to receive their biomonitoring results for environmental chemicals, and ethics guidelines encourage reporting back. However, few studies have quantitively assessed participants' responses to individual exposure reports, and digital methods have not been evaluated.
We isolated effects of receiving personal results vs. only study-wide findings and investigated whether effects differed for Black participants.
We randomly assigned a subset of 295 women from the Child Health and Development Studies, half of whom were Black, to receive a report with personal environmental chemical results or only study-wide (aggregate) findings. Reports included results for 42 chemicals and lipids and were prepared using the Digital Exposure Report-Back Interface (DERBI). Women were interviewed before and after viewing their report. We analyzed differences in website activity, emotional responses, and intentions to participate in future research by report type and race using Wilcoxon rank sum tests, Wilcoxon-Pratt signed ranks tests, and multiple regression.
The personal report group spent approximately twice as much time on their reports as the aggregate group before the post-report-back interview. Among personal-report participants (), 84% (78) viewed chemical group information for at least one personal result highlighted on their home page; among aggregate-report participants (), 66% (62) viewed any chemical group page. Both groups reported strong positive feelings (curious, informed, interested, respected) about receiving results before and after report-back and mild negative feelings (helpless, scared, worried). Although most participants remained unworried after report-back, worry increased by a small amount in both groups. Among Black participants, higher post report-back worry was associated with having high levels of chemicals.
Participants were motivated by their personal results to access online information about chemical sources and potential health effects. Report-back was associated with a small increase in worry, which could motivate appropriate action. Personal report-back increased engagement with exposure reports among Black participants. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP9072.
研究参与者希望收到其环境化学物生物监测结果，而伦理学准则鼓励报告反馈。然而，很少有研究定量评估参与者对个体暴露报告的反应，也未评估数字方法。
我们将个体接收结果与仅接收研究总体结果的效应分离，并调查该效应是否因参与者的种族（黑人群体）而不同。
我们从儿童健康与发展研究中随机抽取了 295 名女性（其中一半为黑人）作为研究对象，将她们分为两组，一组接收个人环境化学物结果报告，另一组仅接收研究总体（汇总）结果。报告包含 42 种化学物质和脂质的结果，使用数字暴露报告反馈界面（DERBI）编制。在查看报告前后，对女性进行了访谈。我们使用 Wilcoxon 秩和检验、Wilcoxon-Pratt 符号秩检验和多元回归分析，按报告类型和种族分析了两组间网站活动、情绪反应和参与未来研究的意向的差异。
个人报告组在接受报告后的访谈前，花在报告上的时间约为汇总报告组的两倍。在个人报告组中（n=147），84%（78 人）查看了主页上突出显示的至少一个个人结果的化学物质组信息；在汇总报告组中（n=148），66%（62 人）查看了任何化学物质组网页。两组参与者在接受报告前后均报告了强烈的积极感受（好奇、知情、感兴趣、受尊重），并报告了一些轻微的负面感受（无助、恐惧、担忧）。尽管大多数参与者在接受报告后仍然不担心，但两组参与者的担忧情绪都略有增加。在黑人参与者中，报告后更高的担忧程度与体内化学物质水平较高有关。
参与者对个人结果感兴趣，从而访问了有关化学物质来源和潜在健康影响的在线信息。报告反馈与担忧情绪的少量增加相关，这可能会激发适当的行动。个人报告反馈增加了黑人群体对暴露报告的参与度。
