Publications by authors named "Pun V"

Article Synopsis
  • A study in Jakarta, Indonesia, assessed the health and economic effects of air pollution, focusing on fine particulate matter (PM) and ground-level ozone, which exceed safety standards.
  • The research analyzed health outcomes such as children's health issues, overall mortality, and hospital visits, using data and comparative risk assessments to determine the burden of air pollution.
  • Findings indicated that air pollution in Jakarta leads to over 7,000 adverse children's health outcomes, over 10,000 deaths, and costs roughly USD 2.94 billion annually, emphasizing the need for clean air initiatives.
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Wearable devices are currently being considered to collect personalized physiological information, which is lately being used to provide healthcare services to individuals. One application is detecting depression by utilization of motor activity signals collected by the ActiGraph wearable wristbands. However, to develop an accurate classification model, we require to use a sufficient volume of data from several subjects, taking the sensitivity of such data into account.

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Patients' health data are captured by local hospital facilities, which has the potential for data analysis. However, due to privacy and legal concerns, local hospital facilities are unable to share the data with others which makes it difficult to apply data analysis and machine learning techniques over the health data. Analysis of such data across hospitals can provide valuable information to health professionals.

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Background: Since 1971, the annual National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for nitrogen dioxide (NO) has remained at 53 ppb, the impact of long-term NO exposure on mortality is poorly understood.

Objectives: We examined associations between long-term NO exposure (12-month moving average of NO) below the annual NAAQS and cause-specific mortality among the older adults in the U.S.

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Stunting is an important risk factor for early growth and health implications throughout the life course, yet until recently, studies have rarely focused on populations exposed to high levels of particulate matter pollution or on developing countries most vulnerable to stunting and its associated health and developmental impacts. We systematically searched for epidemiologic studies published up to 15 August 2020 that examined the association between ambient and household particulate exposure and postnatal stunting (height-for-age z-score) and prenatal determinants (small for gestational age or SGA, or equivalent) of stunting. We conducted the literature search in PUBMED, MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Web of Science databases in August 2020, using keywords including, but not limited to, "particulate matter," "indoor/household air pollution," and "adverse birth outcomes," to identify relevant articles.

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Objective: To compare central nervous system (CNS) activation in patients with and without diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) during motor and motor imagery tasks and to correlate activation with functional performance.

Research Design And Methods: Twenty-six participants (13 with DPN, 13 without DPN) underwent functional MRI during three tasks: ankle dorsi plantar flexion (motor task [MT]) and motor imagery tasks of walking on a smooth surface (SMIT) and rough surface (RMIT). Functional assessment included gait analysis, ankle muscle strength, and ankle range of motion.

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Emerging studies examined the associations of particulate matter constituents with nonaccidental and cardiorespiratory diseases, but few have investigated more specific causes of cardiorespiratory diseases or other system diseases, especially in Asia. We estimated the association between respirable particulate matter (PM) constituents and a spectrum of deaths using a quasi-Poisson time-series model in Hong Kong. Positive associations were identified between cause-specific deaths and elemental carbon, organic carbon (OC), nitrate, and potassium ion (K), but only the associations for OC and K were robust in the two-constituent models adjusting for other constituents.

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Background: The impact of long-term exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO) on cause-specific mortality is poorly understood.

Objective: To assess mortality risks associated with long-term NO exposure and evaluate confounding of this association.

Methods: We examined the association between 12-month moving average NO exposure and cause-specific mortality in 14.

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Evidence for the association between built environment and mental ill health, especially in older population where mental ill health is common, remains inconclusive. We examined the association of roadway distance and urbanicity, measured as percentage of urban land use within 1 km from participants' residence, with mental ill-health in a longitudinal study of community-dwelling older adults in the United States between 2005 and 2006 and 2011-2012. We evaluated perceived stress, depression and anxiety symptoms using the Cohen's Perceived Stress Scale, the Center for Epidemiological Studies - Depression, and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale - anxiety subscale, respectively.

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Physical activity has been shown to promote health and well-being, however, exercising in environments with high level of air pollution might increase the risk of cardio-respiratory impairments. In this crossover study, we constructed linear mixed models to investigate the impact of short-term exposure to black carbon (BC) and ozone on blood pressure and pulmonary functions among 30 healthy adult runners after 30-minute run on a clean and polluted route on separate days in August 2015 in Hong Kong. Runners were on average 20.

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Background And Aim: Despite a growing body of evidence from Western populations on the health benefits of Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diets, their applicability in South East Asian settings is not clear. We examined cross-sectional associations between DASH diet and cardio-metabolic risk factors among 1837 Malaysian and 2898 Philippines participants in a multi-national cohort.

Methods And Results: Blood pressures, fasting lipid profile and fasting glucose were measured, and DASH score was computed based on a 22-item food frequency questionnaire.

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Decreasing ambient fine particulate matter (PM) concentrations over time together with increasing life expectancy raise concerns about temporal confounding of associations between PM and mortality. To address this issue, we examined PM-associated mortality risk ratios (MRRs) estimated for approximately 20,000,000 US Medicare beneficiaries, who lived within six miles of an Environmental Protection Agency air quality monitoring site, between December 2000 and December 2012. We assessed temporal confounding by examining whether PM-associated MRRs vary by study period length.

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Background: While numerous studies worldwide have evaluated the short-term associations of fine and coarse particulate matter (PM) air pollution with mortality and morbidity, these studies may be susceptible to short-term harvesting effect. We aimed to investigate the short-term association between mortality and PM with aerodynamic diameter less than 2.5 μm (PM) and those between 2.

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Background: Neighborhood environment, such as green vegetation, has been shown to play a role in coping with stress and mental ill health. Yet, epidemiological evidence of the association between greenness and mental health is inconsistent.

Methods: We examined whether living in green space is associated with self-perceived stress, depressive and anxiety symptoms in a nationally representative, longitudinal sample of community-dwelling older adults (N = 4118; aged 57-85 years) in the United States.

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Background: Given the lack of research on the personal exposure to fine particles (PM) in Hong Kong, we examined the association between short-term personal exposure to PM and their constituents and inflammation in exhaled breath in a sample of healthy adult residents.

Method: Forty-six participants underwent personal PM monitoring for averagely 6 days to obtain 276 samples. Fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO), a biomarker of inflammation in exhaled breath, was measured at the end of each 24-h personal monitoring.

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Background: Hypertension is a highly prevalent cardiovascular risk factor. It is possible that air pollution, also an established cardiovascular risk factor, may contribute to cardiovascular disease through increasing blood pressure. Previous studies evaluating associations between air pollution and blood pressure have had mixed results.

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Background: Air pollution exposures have been shown to adversely impact health through a number of biological pathways associated with glucose metabolism. However, few studies have evaluated the associations between air pollution and glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels. Further, no studies have evaluated these associations in US populations or investigated whether associations differ in diabetic as compared to non-diabetic populations.

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The impact of chronic exposure to fine particulate matter (particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter less than or equal to 2.5 μm (PM2.5)) on respiratory disease and lung cancer mortality is poorly understood.

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Background: Pathways through which air pollution may impact cognitive function are poorly understood, particularly with regard to whether and how air pollution interacts with social and emotional factors to influence cognitive health.

Objective: To examine the association between air pollutant exposures and cognitive outcomes among older adults participating in the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP) cohort study.

Methods: Measures of cognitive function, social connectedness, and physical and mental health were obtained for each NSHAP participant starting with Wave 1 of the study in 2005.

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Background: Little is known about the association between air pollution and erectile dysfunction (ED), a disorder occurring in 64% of men over the age of 70, and to date, no studies have been published. To address this significant knowledge gap, we explored the relationship between ED and air pollution in a group of older men who were part of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a nationally representative cohort study of older Americans.

Methods: We obtained incident ED status and participant data for 412 men (age 57-85).

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Background: Anemia, a highly prevalent disorder in elderly populations, is associated with numerous adverse health outcomes, including increased mortality, impaired functional status and cognitive disorders. Approximately two-thirds of anemia in American elderly is caused by chronic inflammation or is unexplained. A potential contributing factor may include air pollution exposures, which have been shown to increase systemic inflammation and affect erythropoiesis.

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Background: Olfactory dysfunction has profound effects on quality of life, physical and social function, and mortality itself. Nitrogen dioxide (NO ) is a pervasive air pollutant that is associated with respiratory diseases. Given the olfactory nerve's anatomic exposure to airborne pollutants, we investigated the relationship between NO exposure and olfactory dysfunction.

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Background: Ambient fine particulate matter (PM) is among the most prevalent sources of environmentally induced inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which are implicated in the pathogenesis of most mental disorders. Evidence, however, concerning the impact of PM on mental health is just emerging.

Objective: We examined the association between PM and current level of depressive and anxiety symptoms using a nationally representative probability sample ( = 4,008) of older, community-dwelling individuals living across the United States (the National Social Life, Health and Aging project).

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Walking has been shown to improve physical and mental well-being, yet insufficient walking among university students has been increasingly reported. This study aimed to understand walking behavior of university students using theory of planned behavior (TPB). We recruited 169 undergraduate students by university mass email of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, and first administered a salient belief elicitation survey, which was used to design the TPB questionnaire, to a subset of the study sample.

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Background: Recent experimental and clinical studies suggested that exogenous carbon monoxide (CO) at low concentrations may have beneficial neuroprotective effects under certain circumstances. However, population-based epidemiological studies of environmentally relevant CO exposure generated mixed findings. The present study aimed to examine the short-term association of ambient CO with emergency stroke hospitalizations.

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