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ABSTRACT
Indoor insect pests have a direct and negative impact on human health by inflicting bites and stings, causing allergic reactions and transmitting diseases. Certain volatile and non-volatile organic compounds, secreted by indoor insect pests, are important components of indoor air quality. Volatile compounds have been associated with numerous health disorders. In this study, we used a questionnaire-based approach to quantify the insect populations from 403 indoor spaces along with the features of the indoor systems and the symptoms observed by the inhabitants. We recorded surrounding environmental variables, biological contaminants and possible reasons that the inhabitants thought were behind the increase in the number of certain pests. The indoor environment was the second most common reason attributed to the occurrence of indoor illness, likely due to the pandemic. We also found a significant relation between the indoor biological contaminants recorded and the increasing number of illnesses. Although insects were considered a nuisance in many households, they were not found to be directly related to higher numbers of ill inhabitants. Nonetheless, the increasing number of patients with allergies in the past few years and the increasing health issues reported from indoor spaces with higher pest populations indicates their potential impact.
Acknowledgments
We thank CSIR- UGC for funding support. The students and lab members who have helped during the collection of responses using the questionnaire are also acknowledged. We also thank the Department of Zoology of MES Mampad College for providing facilities and support.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Mendeley Data at Mohammed, Sajidha (2022), Data set used for paper titled- A Comparative Analysis of Indoor Insect Pests and Illnesses of Inhabitants in Malappuram, Kerala, India, Mendeley Data, V1, doi: 10.17632/jh3rgs47mj.1.https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/jh3rgs47mj/1.