PERSONAL USE OF COUNTERMEASURES SEEN IN A COPING PERSPECTIVE - COULD THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPEDIENT COUNTERMEASURES AS A REPERTOIRE IN THE POPULATION, OPTIMIZE COPING AND PROMOTE POSITIVE OUTCOME EXPECTANCIES, WHEN EXPOSED TO A CONTAMINATION THREAT
A. Tonnessen et al., PERSONAL USE OF COUNTERMEASURES SEEN IN A COPING PERSPECTIVE - COULD THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPEDIENT COUNTERMEASURES AS A REPERTOIRE IN THE POPULATION, OPTIMIZE COPING AND PROMOTE POSITIVE OUTCOME EXPECTANCIES, WHEN EXPOSED TO A CONTAMINATION THREAT, Radiation protection dosimetry, 68(3-4), 1996, pp. 261-266
Citations number
25
Categorie Soggetti
Radiology,Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging","Nuclear Sciences & Tecnology
The appraisal and use of countermeasures in a rural district of Russia
with quite high deposition after the Chernobyl accident is studied fr
om a coping perspective. The field work was done during the summer of
1994, in the Bryansk region. There are important methodological shorta
ges in the study, the sample of respondents is not a random sample and
therefore not necessarily representative for the villages covered, an
d in some parts of the questionnaire the frequency of 'don't know/miss
ing' responses is tao high. With these limitations in mind the current
study tries to expand the knowledge about reactions to diffuse enviro
nmental threats by studying populations as they continue their dairy l
ives living in a contaminated area. The data from interviews with the
final net sample of 163 respondents shows that about one in four were
users of countermeasures such as, refraining from consumption of natur
al foods, or radiometric inspection of the food. Of the different coun
termeasures that were included in the questionnaire, the renunciation
of natural products was most frequently employed. Findings indicate th
at the respondents who used countermeasures hid lower levels of radioc
aesium content in their bodies, they felt more able to influence possi
ble health effects of the accident, and at the same time answered that
they were more afraid of possible health effects than the non-users o
f countermeasures. This higher emotional concern is seen in a perspect
ive of 'realistic anxiety', and the use of countermeasures is related
to perceived control and outcome expectancies.