Unravelling determinants of symptoms associated with environmental factors over time: results from a representative sample

Author(s):
Petzke, T.; Köteles, F.; Szemerszky, R. (0000-0002-0812-0387); Rippe, R.C.A. (0000-0002-0812-0387); Witthöft, M.; Lemogne, C.; Nordin, S.; Pitron, V.
Published
2026
Publication type
Article / Letter to editor

Abstract

Symptoms associated with environmental factors (SAEF) are associated with behavioral and emotional reactions towards environmental factors, modern health worries, botheredness with these factors, and heightened somatic symptom burden. While all these constructs play a part in SAEF, it is unclear how they relate to each other over time. The aim of this study was to unravel determinants of SAEF and compare them with those observed in healthy individuals. We used a longitudinal population-based Swedish dataset with three timepoints (N =1576), in which we conducted lag-2 cross-lagged panel models. Modern health worries (MHWS) and negative behav ioral and emotional reactions towards the environment predicted botheredness with environmental factors from Time 1 to Time 2 (from MHWS: β =0.05, 95% CI =[0.01; 0.10], p =.02; from reactions: β =0.14, 95% CI =[0.10; 0.19], p

Date issued
2026-07-11
Language
English
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Is part of
International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health (2026), 114864
Advanced publication
Yes
hdl
1887/5003769
doi
10.1016/j.ijheh.2026.114864
URL
10.1016/j.ijheh.2026.114864
URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheh.2026.114864