IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v12y2015i6p6066-6083d50358.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Evaluation of Quality of Life of Those Living near a Wind Farm

Author

Listed:
  • Bożena Mroczek

    (Department of Humanities in Medicine, Faculty of Health Sciences, Pomeranian Medical University, 11 Chlapowskiego St., 70-204 Szczecin, Poland)

  • Joanna Banaś

    (Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin Wydział Informatyki, 41 Zolnierska St., 71-210 Szczecin, Poland)

  • Małgorzata Machowska-Szewczyk

    (Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology, West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin Wydział Informatyki, 41 Zolnierska St., 71-210 Szczecin, Poland)

  • Donata Kurpas

    (Department of Family Medicine, Wroclaw Medical University, 1 Syrokomli St., 51-141 Wroclaw, Poland
    Opole Medical School, 68 Katowicka St., 45-060 Opole, Poland)

Abstract

Objectives : Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) can serve as a multidimensional means of evaluating the relationship between the presence of wind turbines in residential areas and their consequence for health. The purpose of this study was to determine whether a relationship exists between the presence of wind farms at different stages of development and the HRQoL of people living in their vicinity in Poland. Method : The instruments employed in this study were the SF-36v2, a questionnaire measuring self-reported health problems, and a sociodemographic questionnaire. The study involved 1277 people who lived within 2 km from a wind turbine. Results : The highest overall QoL scores were obtained by respondents living the closest to wind turbines. The mental health, role emotional, and social functioning scores were significantly higher among respondents living near wind farms and wind-farm construction sites than among those living close to locations where wind farms were planned but where construction had not yet begun. Positive correlations were found between physical and mental component scores and reactions to the news of plans to construct a wind farm. Significant differences in physical and mental component scores were observed between residents who reacted calmly and those who responded with apprehension. Residents who expected the improvement of their financial standing as a result of the wind farm assessed their general health higher than those who did not expect to receive any economic benefits. The lowest QoL scores corresponded to frequent headaches, stomach aches, and back pain over the previous three months, as well as recurrent problems with falling asleep, anxiety, and a lack of acceptance of the project. Conclusion : The lowest overall QoL and general health scores were noted among residents of places where wind-farm developments were either at the stage of planning or under construction. In order to find ways of reducing environmental stress and its adverse effects on health, it is necessary to conduct research on residents of places where a wind farm is either planned or under construction, or has just been completed.

Suggested Citation

  • Bożena Mroczek & Joanna Banaś & Małgorzata Machowska-Szewczyk & Donata Kurpas, 2015. "Evaluation of Quality of Life of Those Living near a Wind Farm," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-18, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:6:p:6066-6083:d:50358
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/6/6066/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/12/6/6066/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    2. Daniel Shepherd & David Welch & Kim N. Dirks & Renata Mathews, 2010. "Exploring the Relationship between Noise Sensitivity, Annoyance and Health-Related Quality of Life in a Sample of Adults Exposed to Environmental Noise," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 7(10), pages 1-16, October.
    3. Lombard, Andrea & Ferreira, Sanette, 2014. "Residents' attitudes to proposed wind farms in the West Coast region of South Africa: A social perspective from the South," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 390-399.
    4. Ruut Veenhoven, 1995. "World Database of Happiness," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 34(3), pages 299-313, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Daniel Shepherd, 2017. "Comment on Mroczek et al. Evaluation of Quality of Life of Those Living near a Wind Farm. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health , 2015, 12, 6066–6083," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(2), pages 1-3, February.
    2. Peter Lercher & Paul B. Tchounwou, 2017. "Comments by the Academic Editors to Responses and Replies Concerning Mroczek et al.’s “Evaluation of Quality of Life of Those Living near a Wind Farm“: Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2015, 12 , 6," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-6, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Maria Andersson & Ola Eriksson & Chris Von Borgstede, 2012. "The Effects of Environmental Management Systems on Source Separation in the Work and Home Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-17, June.
    2. Tran Huy Phuong & Thanh Trung Hieu, 2015. "Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 46-55, August.
    3. Clara Cardone-Riportella & María José Casasola-Martinez & Isabel Feito-Ruiz, 2014. "Do Entrepreneurs Come From Venus Or Mars? Impact Of Postgraduate Studies: Gender And Family Business Background," Working Papers 14.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Financial Economics and Accounting (former Department of Business Administration), revised Sep 2014.
    4. Peng Cheng & Zhe Ouyang & Yang Liu, 0. "The effect of information overload on the intention of consumers to adopt electric vehicles," Transportation, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-20.
    5. Ruijie Zhu & Guojing Zhao & Zehai Long & Yangjie Huang & Zhaoxin Huang, 2022. "Entrepreneurship or Employment? A Survey of College Students’ Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intentions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, May.
    6. Alsalem, Amani & Fry, Marie-Louise & Thaichon, Park, 2020. "To donate or to waste it: Understanding posthumous organ donation attitude," Australasian marketing journal, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 87-97.
    7. Pan, Jing Yu & Liu, Dahai, 2022. "Mask-wearing intentions on airplanes during COVID-19 – Application of theory of planned behavior model," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 32-44.
    8. Benoît Lécureux & Adrien Bonnet & Ouassim Manout & Jaâfar Berrada & Louafi Bouzouina, 2022. "Acceptance of Shared Autonomous Vehicles: A Literature Review of stated choice experiments," Working Papers hal-03814947, HAL.
    9. Jacqueline Ruth & Steffen Willwacher & Oliver Korn, 2022. "Acceptance of Digital Sports: A Study Showing the Rising Acceptance of Digital Health Activities Due to the SARS-CoV-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-16, January.
    10. Jariyasunant, Jerald & Carrel, Andre & Ekambaram, Venkatesan & Gaker, David & Sengupta, Raja & Walker, Joan L., 2012. "The Quantified Traveler: Changing transport behavior with personalized travel data feedback," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt3047k0dw, University of California Transportation Center.
    11. Brown, Philip & Roper, Simon, 2017. "Innovation and networks in New Zealand farming," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(3), July.
    12. Teodora Roman, 2009. "Study regarding entrepreneurial intentions among students," THE YEARBOOK OF THE "GH. ZANE" INSTITUTE OF ECONOMIC RESEARCHES, Gheorghe Zane Institute for Economic and Social Research ( from THE ROMANIAN ACADEMY, JASSY BRANCH), vol. 18, pages 87-94.
    13. Messele Kumilachew Aga, 2023. "The mediating role of perceived behavioral control in the relationship between entrepreneurship education and entrepreneurial intentions of university students in Ethiopia," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-18, December.
    14. Kristin Thomas & Evalill Nilsson & Karin Festin & Pontus Henriksson & Mats Lowén & Marie Löf & Margareta Kristenson, 2020. "Associations of Psychosocial Factors with Multiple Health Behaviors: A Population-Based Study of Middle-Aged Men and Women," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(4), pages 1-17, February.
    15. Andreas Falke & Nadine Schröder & Claudia Hofmann, 2022. "The influence of values in sustainable consumption among millennials," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 92(6), pages 899-928, August.
    16. Kamruzzaman, Md. & Baker, Douglas & Washington, Simon & Turrell, Gavin, 2013. "Residential dissonance and mode choice," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 12-28.
    17. Ficko, Andrej & Boncina, Andrej, 2013. "Probabilistic typology of management decision making in private forest properties," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 34-43.
    18. Muhammad Shahid Qureshi & Saadat Saeed & Syed Waleed Mehmood Wasti, 2016. "The impact of various entrepreneurial interventions during the business plan competition on the entrepreneur identity aspirations of participants," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 6(1), pages 1-18, December.
    19. Radha Jagannathan & Michael J. Camasso & Bagavan Das & Jale Tosun & Sadagopan Iyengar, 2017. "Family, society and the individual: determinants of entrepreneurial attitudes among youth in Chennai, South India," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 7(1), pages 1-22, December.
    20. Grégoire Wallenborn & Catherine Rousseau & Karine Thollier, 2006. "Détermination de profils de ménages pour une utilisation plus rationnelle de l’energie," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/192217, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:12:y:2015:i:6:p:6066-6083:d:50358. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.