Awareness and Perceptions about Indoor Air Pollution among Health Professional Students: Evidence from a Cross-Sectional Survey from the Northern Emirates of the United Arab Emirates

Indoor air pollution is a serious threat to human health, especially for women, children, and adolescents.

This study aimed to understand the awareness and perceptions about Indoor Air Pollution (IAP) among undergraduate nursing and dental students in the United Arab Emirates.

A descriptive, cross-sectional survey was conducted on 388 undergraduate nursing and dental students from a health sciences university in the United Arab Emirates. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. A consecutive sampling technique was used to recruit the study participants. Frequency, percentage, median, and interquartile range were used to summarize the study variables, while Mann Whitney U test and t-test were used to test the differences in statistical significance.

Around 39.7% of the students expressed having somewhat level of knowledge regarding air pollution and its effects (28.4%). Most of the students (54.1%) perceived their indoor air quality to be poor while only 32% were a little worried about it. Of all only 26.3% and 27.8% of the students had a high level of awareness and perception regarding IAP.

The study findings demonstrate an urgent need for strategies like educational campaigns and curriculum redesign to improve air pollution literacy among university students locally and globally.