Impacts of air cleaners on indoor air quality in residences impacted by wood smoke.

Residential wood combustion is an important source of ambient air pollution, accounting for over 25% of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) emissions in Canada. In addition to these ambient contributions, wood smoke pollutants can enter the indoor environment directly when loading or stoking stoves, resulting in a high potential for human exposure.

What type of rural? Assessing the variations in life expectancy at birth at small area-level for a small population province using classes of locally defined settlement types.

Background: Although efforts have been made to articulate rural-urban health inequalities in recent years, results have been inconsistent due to different geographical scales used in these studies. Small-area level investigations of health inequalities will likely show more detailed pictures of health inequalities among diverse rural communities, but they are difficult to conduct, particularly in a small population region. The objectives of this study were: 1) to compare life expectancy at birth for females and males across small-areas classified by locally defined settlement types for a small province in Canada; 2) to assess whether any of the settlement types explains variations in life expectancy over and above the extent of socioeconomic disadvantage and social isolation; and 3) to examine variations in life expectancies within a (larger) area unit used as the basis of health inequality investigations in previous studies.

Impact of biogas digesters on cookhouse volatile organic compound exposure for rural Kenyan farmwomen.

Women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms burn wood as biofuel in family cookhouses. Unventilated biofuel combustion produces harmful levels of respirable particles and volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions in indoor environments. Biogas digesters, which can generate high methane-content biogas from livestock manure composting were recently installed on 31 farms.

Impact of biogas digesters on wood utilisation and self-reported back pain for women living on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms.

Women living on rural Kenyan dairy farms spend significant amounts of time collecting wood for cooking. Biogas digesters, which generate biogas for cooking from the anaerobic decomposition of livestock manure, are an alternative fuel source. The objective of this study was to quantify the quality of life and health benefits of installing biogas digesters on rural Kenyan dairy farms with respect to wood utilisation.

Pilot study on the impact of biogas as a fuel source on respiratory health of women on rural Kenyan smallholder dairy farms.

Biomass burning in indoor environments has been highlighted as a major cause of respiratory morbidity for women and children in low-income countries. Inexpensive technological innovations which reduce such exposures are needed. This study evaluated the impact of low tech compost digesters, which generate biogas for cooking, versus traditional fuel sources on the respiratory health of nonsmoking Kenyan farmwomen.

Breast cancer risk, fungicide exposure and CYP1A1*2A gene-environment interactions in a province-wide case control study in Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Scientific certainty regarding environmental toxin-related etiologies of breast cancer, particularly among women with genetic polymorphisms in estrogen metabolizing enzymes, is lacking. Fungicides have been recognized for their carcinogenic potential, yet there is a paucity of epidemiological studies examining the health risks of these agents. The association between agricultural fungicide exposure and breast cancer risk was examined in a secondary analysis of a province-wide breast cancer case-control study in Prince Edward Island (PEI) Canada.

Priority setting and policy advocacy by nursing associations: a scoping review and implications using a socio-ecological whole systems lens.

Objective: We undertook an interpretative scoping review to examine organizational priority setting and policy advocacy and the factors that influence nursing associations' cross-sector public policy choices and actions.

Method: Evidence was drawn from research, narrative, and theoretical sources that described priority setting and policy advocacy undertaken by non-governmental, non-profit, and nursing associations. Text was extracted from selected papers, imported into NVivo 8, coded, and analyzed using a descriptive-analytical narrative method.

Adverse events in older patients admitted to acute care: a preliminary cost description.

The financial costs associated with Adverse Events (AEs) for older patients (> or = 65 years) in Canadian hospitals are unknown. The objective of this paper is to describe and compare costs between patients who experienced an AE and those who did not during an acute hospital admission to a tertiary care facility. Patients with an AE had twice the hospital length of stay (20.

Impact of adverse events on hospital disposition in community-dwelling seniors admitted to acute care.

Older adults (> or =65 years) have been identified as a high-risk group for the occurrence of adverse events (AEs) in hospital. The purpose of this paper is to describe the association between AEs and disposition for a population of hospitalized seniors. All community-dwelling seniors admitted to an acute care in-patient unit were eligible for inclusion in this retrospective cohort study conducted at an adult tertiary care facility in Atlantic Canada between July 1, 2005, and March 31, 2006.