Publications by authors named "Dione G Mercer"
Background: Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) comprises the triad of chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyps (CRSwNP), asthma, and intolerance to inhibitors of the cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) enzyme. The prevalence of AERD remains unclear, and few studies have compared the clinical characteristics of patients with AERD to those with CRSwNP alone, asthma alone, or both CRSwNP and asthma.
Objective: To determine the prevalence of AERD within a tertiary care setting, and to identify unique clinical features that could distinguish these patients from those with both CRSwNP and asthma or with CRSwNP alone.
Importance: Asthma is common and can be exacerbated by air pollution and stress. Unconventional natural gas development (UNGD) has community and environmental impacts. In Pennsylvania, UNGD began in 2005, and by 2012, 6253 wells had been drilled.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Unconventional natural gas development has expanded rapidly. In Pennsylvania, the number of producing wells increased from 0 in 2005 to 3,689 in 2013. Few publications have focused on unconventional natural gas development and birth outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: No prior studies in children have evaluated how age may modify relationships of the built and social environments with BMI, nor evaluated the range of scales and contexts over which places may influence health.
Purpose: To systematically evaluate associations of 33 environmental measures in three domains (land use, physical activity, and social environments) with BMI in children and adolescents in five geographies.
Methods: A cross-sectional, multilevel analysis was completed in 2009-2010 of electronic health record data (2001-2008) from 47,769 children aged 5-18 years residing in a 31-county region of Pennsylvania.