Estimation of proportion of those who used humidifier disinfectant among Korean population between 1994 and 2011

초록

Background/Aim In Korea, humidifier disinfectant was first introduced in 1994 for the purpose of preventing the growth of microorganisms by adding it to the water in the humidifier and used until 2011 when its use was banned. During the period approximately about 600,000 bottles of over 20 kinds of brand were used annually. Although there have been several surveys that reported the proportion of those who used humidifier disinfectants, they are limited in terms of small sample size and low response rate. The objective of this study to estimate the proportion of humidifier disinfectant utilization considering the difference of year, region, and population (pregnant women, children under 7 years), Methods The survey was conducted by person to person interview for 3,001 subjects who were selected nationwide by stratified sampling by gender, age, and region (total 15 cities or provinces). The subjects were asked about the use of humidifier and humidifier disinfectants in their household during 1994-2011. They were further asked if there was any pregnant woman or children aged 7 or less during the period. The respondents aged 19-29 years were excluded from the analysis considering that they were too young to correctly recall the use of humidifier or humidifier disinfectant use. The proportion of use of humidifier and humidifier disinfectants were estimated for subgroups by each year, each region and the presence of pregnant women or children aged 7 or less. Results The proportions of subjects who used humidifier and humidifier disinfectant in their household were 25.8% and 6.7%, respectively. Both tended to increase over the years from 1994 to 2011 and varied significantly by region. The proportions were much higher for the households with pregnant women (51.6% and 16.5%) or children aged 7 or less (45.6% and 14.2%) during the periods. Based on these proportions, statistics of the Korean population between 1994 and 2011, and several assumptions, about 3.5 t