Public Awareness of the Duties of Environmental Health Officers in Canada

Abstract

The purpose of the study was to examine the level of public awareness regarding Environmental Health Officers' (EHOs) roles and responsibilities in the public domain. EHOs as public servants are an integral component of the health care system and the recognition of their profession often goes unnoticed. In order to better serve the community, it is important for the public to know where to access resources and consult for help about health related issues. An electronic questionnaire, a service provided by Survey Monkey, was constructed and disseminated on January 12, 2013 via email using snowball sampling and posting on Facebook. There were a total of 161 completed responses by the closing date on February 10, 2013, and the data was statistically analyzed.

For descriptive statistics, the participants had a mean score of 62.25% on their knowledge of EHOs' duties. The public was most aware that EHOs were involved in drinking water quality but least aware of EHOs involvement in land development. Conversely, the public was most aware that EHOs were not involved in social services but least aware that EHOs were not involved in lab testing. For inferential statistics, a one-way ANOVA was performed on each of the three demographic profiles - age, educational level, and field of study/work - in order to compare the mean scores of the different study groups within each profile. There were no statistical significant differences between public's knowledge on EHOs' duties and age groups, educational level, and field of study/work.

This study suggested that public awareness regarding EHOs' involvement in various health service programs needs improvement. Awareness level was higher in health-related matters that have a perceivable direct effect on health and are often placed in the forefront of mass media. The study also indicated that EHOs do not receive enough recognition as educators or consultants of health-related issues. Further research is needed to assess strategies on increasing awareness and the issues identified should be studied with a larger sample population.