The Study of Respiratory Symptoms Prevalence and its Relation with the Airborne Bio-Aerosols and Perceived Risk of Air Pollution in Students of Guiding and High Schools of Yazd

Any preventive behavior requires enough knowledge of the high risk groups about the condition and nature of the pollutants. Bio-aerosol are a class of pollutants that can cause multiple complications. So, the aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of respiratory symptoms and its relation with the airborne bio-aerosols and perceived risk of air pollution in school students of the Yazd city.The current cross-sectional study was conducted on 580 students of 20 schools; selected by cluster sampling method; during the winter and spring 2013 in Yazd city. A questionnaire was used to evaluate the respiratory symptoms in participants. Also the bio-aerosols were determined by the impinger, while the rate was 12.5 liters per minute. The SPSS16 software and descriptive statistics, together with nonparametric tests (i.e. Mann-Whitney and Chi-square) with 95% confidence intervals were used for data analysis.The mean score of knowledge and attitude on air pollution were moderate and good respectively. There was a significant difference in mean of knowledge between two genders (p<0.05); it was higher in the girls than the boys. The different prevalence of respiratory symptoms in boys and girls were observed in guiding and high school levels. Also there was relation between airborne bio-aerosols and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms (p<0.05).The prevalence of respiratory symptoms and its relation to bio-aerosol concentrations were caused by the inappropriate ventilation of the classroom and it’s overcrowded by students. Risk perception of the students on air pollution was not acceptable. Thus, as the baseline for any promotion, it is necessary to organize some related workshops in the schools and provide the students with the major health and bio-environmental issues.