Improving awareness of health hazards associated with air pollution in primary school children: Design and test of didactic tools

ABSTRACT

One of the objectives of the MAPEC-Life project is raising children's awareness on air quality and its health effects. To achieve this goal, we designed didactic tools for primary school students, including leaflets with more information for teachers, a cartoon, and three educational videogames. The tools were then tested with 266 children who attended six primary schools in four Italian cities. A control group of 51 children received only explanations from teachers. An improvement in knowledge after using the audiovisual package was demonstrated, with higher efficacy compared with the control group. In addition, the use of videogames was greatly appreciated.

Acknowledgments

The following authors contributed to this article through MAPEC_LIFE Group: University of Salento: Antonella De Donno, Marcello Guido, Adele Idolo, Francesca Serio, Maria Rosaria Tumolo, and Tiziano Verri; University of Torino: Giorgio Gilli, Valeria Romanazzi, Tiziana Schilirò, Silvia Bonetta, and Cristina Pignata; University of Brescia: Loredana Covolo, Francesco Donato, Donatella Feretti, Andrea Festa, Rosella Levaggi, Rosa Maria Limina, Giovanna Mazzoleni, Nathalie Steimberg, Gaia Claudia Viviana Viola, and Ilaria Zerbini; and University of Perugia: Massimo Moretti, Silvano Monarca, Cristina Fatigoni, Sara Levorato, Valentina Petrosi, Tania Salvatori, and Samuele Vannini.

The authors of this article acknowledge and thank the teachers and schools that participated in this study, in particular: “Livio Tempesta” primary school, Lecce: Carmelo Centonze, Mariantonietta Caus, and Tonino Bacca (Head Teacher); “Giuditta Newbery” primary school, Pisa: Enrica Biondi and Fiorella Di Lorenzo (Head Teacher); “Carlo Collodi” primary school, Pisa: Angela Natoli and Lucio Bontempelli (Head Teacher); “Piero Gobetti” primary school, Torino: Maria Miceli, Luisa Rendina, and Vivina Forgia (Head Teacher); “Italo Calvino” primary school, Brescia: Paola Maurina and Laura Bonomini (Head Teacher); and “Raffaello Sanzio” primary school, Brescia: Franca Filippini.

The authors thank Dr. Antonella Pace and Dr. Laura Gessa, for their contribution in the design phase of the didactic tools and the native English-speaking experts of “BioMed Proofreading” for their help in editing this article.

Funding

This work was supported by LIFE+, the European Union's Financial Instrument for the Environment under Grant No. [LIFE12 ENV/IT/000614].