Association between prenatal air pollutant exposure and autism spectrum disorders in young children: A matched case-control study in Canada.

The direction and magnitude of association between maternal exposure to ambient air pollutants across gestational windows and offspring risk of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) remains unclear. We sought to evaluate the time-varying effects of prenatal air pollutant exposure on ASD. We conducted a matched case-control study of singleton term children born in Ontario, Canada from 1-Apr-2012 to 31-Dec-2016.

Associations of neighborhood greenspace, and active living environments with autism spectrum disorders: A matched case-control study in Ontario, Canada.

Background: Increasing evidence links early life residential exposure to natural urban environmental attributes and positive health outcomes in children. However, few studies have focused on their protective effects on the risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of neighborhood greenspace, and active living environments during pregnancy with ASD in young children (≤6 years).

Multi-pollutant case-crossover models of all-cause and cause-specific mortality and hospital admissions by age group in 47 Canadian cities.

Most of the existing epidemiological studies have investigated adverse health effects of multiple air pollutants for a limited number of cities, thus the evidence of the health impacts is limited and it is challenging to compare these results because of different modeling approaches and potential publication bias. In this paper, we expand the number of Canadian cities, with the use of the most recent available health data. A multi-pollutant model in a case-crossover design is used to investigate the short-term impacts of air pollution on various health outcomes in 47 Canadian main cities, comparing three age groups (all-age, senior (age 66+), non-senior).

Circulatory health risks from additive multi-pollutant models: short-term exposure to three common air pollutants in Canada.

Numerous studies have reported adverse health effects of ambient air pollution on circulatory health outcomes mainly based on single-pollutant models. However, limited studies have focused on adjusted effect of multi-pollutant exposures on public health. This study aimed to examine short-term effects of three common air pollutants-ground-level ozone (ozone), nitrogen dioxide (NO), and fine particulate matter (PM)-through multi-pollutant models for mixed effect of adjustment.

Critical Time Windows for Air Pollution Exposure and Birth Weight in a Multicity Canadian Pregnancy Cohort.

Background: Maternal prenatal exposure to air pollution has been associated with adverse birth outcomes. However, previous studies focused on a priori time intervals such as trimesters reported inconsistent associations.

Objectives: We investigated time-varying vulnerability of birth weight to fine particulate matter (PM2.

Pollutant-sex specific differences in respiratory hospitalization and mortality risk attributable to short-term exposure to ambient air pollution.

Background: Many studies have reported associations of individual pollutants with respiratory hospitalization and mortality based on different populations, which makes it difficult to directly compare adverse health effects among multiple air pollutants.

Objectives: The study goal is to compare acute respiratory-related hospitalization and mortality associated with short-term exposure to three ambient air pollutants and analyze differences in health risks by season, age and sex.

Methods: Hourly measurements of air pollutants (ozone, NO, PM) and temperature were collected from ground-monitors for 24 cities along with daily hospitalization (1996-2012) and mortality (1984-2012) data.

Comparison of hospitalization and mortality associated with short-term exposure to ambient ozone and PM in Canada.

Background: Hospitalization and mortality (H-M) have been linked to air pollution separately. However, previous studies have not adequately compared whether air pollution is a stronger risk factor for hospitalization or mortality. This study aimed to investigate differences in H-M risk from short-term ozone and PM exposures, and determine whether differences are modified by season, age, and sex.

Temporal trends in associations between ozone and circulatory mortality in age and sex in Canada during 1984-2012.

Background: Considerable research has been conducted on the association between ground-level ozone (ozone) and various causes of mortality, but the relationships by age and sex (biological) have been inconsistent, and temporal trends remain unexplored.

Objectives: The study goals are to investigate the adverse health effects of short-term exposure to ozone on circulatory mortality by age and sex, and to examine trends in annual health effects.

Methods: Daily ozone, temperature, and circulatory mortality counts (ICD I00-I99) were collected for 24 urban cities for 29 years (1984-2012).

The Oakville Oil Refinery Closure and Its Influence on Local Hospitalizations: A Natural Experiment on Sulfur Dioxide.

: An oil refinery in Oakville, Canada, closed over 2004⁻2005, providing an opportunity for a natural experiment to examine the effects on oil refinery-related air pollution and residents' health. : Environmental and health data were collected for the 16 years around the refinery closure. Toronto (2.

Air Health Trend Indicator: Association between Short-Term Exposure to Ground Ozone and Circulatory Hospitalizations in Canada for 17 Years, 1996⁻2012.

The Air Health Trend Indicator is designed to estimate the public health risk related to short-term exposure to air pollution and to detect trends in the annual health risks. Daily ozone, circulatory hospitalizations and weather data for 24 cities (about 54% of Canadians) for 17 years (1996⁻2012) were used. This study examined three circulatory causes: ischemic heart disease (IHD, 40% of cases), other heart disease (OHD, 31%) and cerebrovascular disease (CEV, 14%).

Meta-Analysis Methods to Estimate the Shape and Uncertainty in the Association Between Long-Term Exposure to Ambient Fine Particulate Matter and Cause-Specific Mortality Over the Global Concentration Range.

Estimates of excess mortality associated with exposure to ambient concentrations of fine particulate matter have been obtained from either a single cohort study or pooling information from a small number of studies. However, standard frequentist methods of pooling are known to underestimate statistical uncertainty in the true risk distribution when the number of studies pooled is small. Alternatively, Bayesian pooling methods using noninformative priors yield unrealistically large amounts of uncertainty in this case.

Global, regional, and national incidence and mortality for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: The Millennium Declaration in 2000 brought special global attention to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria through the formulation of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 6. The Global Burden of Disease 2013 study provides a consistent and comprehensive approach to disease estimation for between 1990 and 2013, and an opportunity to assess whether accelerated progress has occured since the Millennium Declaration.

Methods: To estimate incidence and mortality for HIV, we used the UNAIDS Spectrum model appropriately modified based on a systematic review of available studies of mortality with and without antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Global, regional, and national levels and causes of maternal mortality during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: The fifth Millennium Development Goal (MDG 5) established the goal of a 75% reduction in the maternal mortality ratio (MMR; number of maternal deaths per 100,000 livebirths) between 1990 and 2015. We aimed to measure levels and track trends in maternal mortality, the key causes contributing to maternal death, and timing of maternal death with respect to delivery.

Methods: We used robust statistical methods including the Cause of Death Ensemble model (CODEm) to analyse a database of data for 7065 site-years and estimate the number of maternal deaths from all causes in 188 countries between 1990 and 2013.

Global, regional, and national levels of neonatal, infant, and under-5 mortality during 1990-2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013.

Background: Remarkable financial and political efforts have been focused on the reduction of child mortality during the past few decades. Timely measurements of levels and trends in under-5 mortality are important to assess progress towards the Millennium Development Goal 4 (MDG 4) target of reduction of child mortality by two thirds from 1990 to 2015, and to identify models of success.

Methods: We generated updated estimates of child mortality in early neonatal (age 0-6 days), late neonatal (7-28 days), postneonatal (29-364 days), childhood (1-4 years), and under-5 (0-4 years) age groups for 188 countries from 1970 to 2013, with more than 29,000 survey, census, vital registration, and sample registration datapoints.

Tracking national and regional spatial-temporal mortality risk associated with NO2 concentrations in Canada: a Bayesian hierarchical two-level model.

The association between daily variations in urban air quality and mortality has been well documented using time series statistical methods. This approach assumes a constant association over time. We develop a space-time dynamic model that relaxes this assumption, thus more directly examining the hypothesis that improvements in air quality translate into improvements in public health.

A temporal, multicity model to estimate the effects of short-term exposure to ambient air pollution on health.

Background: Countries worldwide are expending significant resources to improve air quality partly to improve the health of their citizens. Are these societal expenditures improving public health?

Objectives: We consider these issues by tracking the risk of death associated with outdoor air pollution over both space and time in Canadian cities.

Materials And Methods: We propose two multi-year estimators that use current plus several previous years of data to estimate current year risk.

A new multipollutant, no-threshold air quality health index based on short-term associations observed in daily time-series analyses.

Air quality indices currently in use have been criticized because they do not capture additive effects of multiple pollutants, or reflect the apparent no-threshold concentration-response relationship between air pollution and health. We propose a new air quality health index (AQHI), constructed as the sum of excess mortality risk associated with individual pollutants from a time-series analysis of air pollution and mortality in Canadian cities, adjusted to a 0-10 scale, and calculated hourly on the basis of trailing 3-hr average pollutant concentrations. Extensive sensitivity analyses were conducted using alternative combinations of pollutants from single and multipollutant models.