Geographic analysis of health risks of pediatric lead exposure: a golden opportunity to promote healthy neighborhoods.

In this retrospective study, the authors investigated pediatric blood lead levels (BLLs) at 2 threshold levels in neighborhoods across the US city of Chicago, examining geographic associations with demographic risk factors and housing characteristics, using data from large-scale childhood BLL screening records from 1997 through 2003. They used logistic regression and geostatistical methods to assess disease dynamics and probability of elevated BLLs. The results showed a significant decline of elevated BLLs, with levels measured at >or= 10 microg/dL decreasing by 74%, compared with a 40% decrease for the lower levels (6-9 microg/dL).

Geographic targeting of risk zones for childhood stunting and related health outcomes in Burkina Faso.

Several studies seeking alternative intervention strategies for chronic food insecurity in food-poor nations now advocate the simultaneous evaluation of multiple causative agents to identify and monitor at-risk populations. This study attempted to do so using a three-tiered conceptual framework that expressed childhood nutritional health outcomes as a function of basic, underlying and immediate causes that are manifested at the regional%community level, the household level and the personal level. Focusing on stunting (short stature) as a direct cumulative indicator of food insecurity, the geographic patterns of this nutritional health outcome were mapped using empirical data from Burkina Faso.