The physical and psychological factors predicting the onset and severity of environmental illness : a union perspective

Abstract

Environmental Illness (EI) is thought to be precipitated by physical, psychological, social, and organizational factors. However, little research has focused on the psychological or organizational factors which may be associated with EI. The present exploratory field study examined differences in measures related to stress, social support, and physical and psychological symptoms associated with EI, among 525 hospital employees working in known EI and non-EI locations in the Metro Halifax Area. Although employees in EI locations experienced greater symptom severity, no consistent differences were found in the stress and social support measures between EI and non-EI locations. However, employees in EI locations with high symptom severity did report greater stress and lower social support than those with low symptom severity. Discriminant analyses revealed that the combined measures were relatively good at predicting group membership (EI vs non-EI locations). Structural modelling equations examining the relations among stress, social support, and symptom severity revealed that stress negatively predicted social support within EI and non-EI locations. Stress was found to be a direct predictor of symptom severity, but only among employees in EI locations. Unexpectedly, no significant association was found between social support and symptom severity in either EI or non-EI locations. This suggests that stress is related to greater symptom severity, but only for those people with low levels of social support.