The interest in the impact of urban environmental exposures (UrbEEs) on mental health has greatly increased in the last two decades. Researchers have tended to measure said exposures either via objective measurement procedures (eg, air pollution campaigns and geographic information systems computations) or by self-reported techniques such as the use of scales and questionnaires. It has been suggested that studying both the objective features of the environments and people's perceptions are key to understand environmental determinants of health and might be needed to tailor effective interventions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn heavily urbanized world saturated with environmental pollutants, road traffic noise stands out as a significant factor contributing to widespread public health issues. It contributes in the development of a diverse range of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, metabolic dysregulation, cognitive impairment, and neurodegenerative disorders. Although the exact mechanisms behind these non-auditory health effects remain unclear, the noise reaction model centres on the stress response to noise.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Ambient air temperature may affect birth outcomes adversely, but little is known about their impact on foetal growth throughout pregnancy. We evaluated the association between temperature exposure during pregnancy and foetal size and growth in three European birth cohorts.
Methods: We studied 23,408 pregnant women from the English Born in Bradford cohort, Dutch Generation R Study, and Spanish INMA Project.
Introduction: The European Environment Agency estimates that 75% of the European population lives in cities. Despite the many advantages of city life, the risks and challenges to health arising from urbanisation need to be addressed in order to tackle the growing burden of disease and health inequalities in cities. This study, (DAS-EP project), aims to investigate the complex association between the urban environmental exposures (UrbEEs) and health.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The majority of studies have shown higher greenness exposure associated with reduced mortality risks, but few controlled for spatially correlated air pollution and traffic noise exposures. We aim to address this research gap in the ELAPSE pooled cohort.
Methods: Mean Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) in a 300-m grid cell and 1-km radius were assigned to participants' baseline home addresses as a measure of surrounding greenness exposure.