source(s) of the hazard, apply that under- standing to taking preventive health action, assess personal risk of exposure, evaluate ways of mitigating risk, and create a plan to mitigate the risk (Finn and O’Fallon 2017). Most EHL studies measure knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about one or more specific toxicants (e.g., radon) to identify levels of EHL (Gray 2018). EHL-building interventions and methods, including citizen science approaches, draw from social science fields like health communication, health literacy, and risk and participatory communi- cation (Hoover 2019). Finn and O’Fallon (2017) suggest EHL assessments be tailored to the topic and population. Recent examples of EHL interventions have improved the diagnosis of air pollution information needs (Ramirez et al. 2019) and have improved environmental health knowledge by developing and adapting a mobile app (Delliger et al. 2019). In addition, citizen science approaches using environmental sampling and Photovoice with Appalachian and urban youths have built knowledge, efficacy, and engagement (Cardarelli et al. 2021), while research in California engaged high school students in community air monitoring (Madrigal et al. 2020). A goal
of EHL is to foster greater understanding of environmental health risks among individuals, which in turn prompts action to reduce risk
(Finn and O’Fallon 2017). Indeed, those with higher self-efficacy in radon testing and mitigation were more likely than those with lower self-efficacy to take action to test and remediate for radon (Hahn et al. 2019).
Given that citizen science approaches often empower people to take action and adapt their own environmental health behaviors,
we launched Radon on the RADAR (Residents Acting to Detect and Alleviate Radon), a community-engaged, citizen science research collaboration to promote home radon testing in four rural counties of Kentucky. We trained 60 non-scientist community residents as citizen scientists to test their homes for radon and report back the findings. We engaged them in a focus group to evaluate their experience. We evaluated changes in EHL and efficacy via an online survey administered at baseline, post-radon testing, and at 4–5 months after implementing a citizen science approach. We hypothesized that EHL, response efficacy, health information efficacy, and self-efficacy related to radon testing and mitigation would increase over time.
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