Residential greenness and pollen exposure across gestational trimesters in relation to preschool wheezing: Results for the PIPO birth cohort.

Introduction: Previous studies on prenatal green space exposure and early respiratory health show inconsistent results. This may reflect stage-specific in utero effects and pollen influence. We examine associations of surrounding greenness and pollen exposure during pregnancy (overall and by trimester) with preschool wheezing, and assess potential mediation by pollen.

Impact of short-term exposure to air pollution on natural mortality and vulnerable populations: a multi-city case-crossover analysis in Belgium.

Background: The adverse effect of air pollution on mortality is well documented worldwide but the identification of more vulnerable populations at higher risk of death is still limited. The aim of this study was to evaluate the association between natural mortality (overall and cause-specific) and short-term exposure to five air pollutants (PM, PM, NO, O and black carbon) and identify potential vulnerable populations in Belgium.

Methods: We used a time-stratified case-crossover design with conditional logistic regressions to assess the relationship between mortality and air pollution in the nine largest Belgian agglomerations.

Non-response bias in the analysis of the association between mental health and the urban environment: a cross-sectional study in Brussels, Belgium.

Background: This paper aims at analysing the impact of partial non-response in the association between urban environment and mental health in Brussels. The potential threats of the partial non-response are biases in survey estimates and statistics. The effect of non-response on statistical associations is often overlooked and evidence in the research literature is lacking.

Impact of environmental nitrogen pollution on pollen allergy: A scoping review.

The current rise in the prevalence of allergies to aeroallergens is incompletely understood and attributed to interactions with environmental changes and lifestyle changes. Environmental nitrogen pollution might be a potential driver of this increasing prevalence. While the ecological impact of excessive nitrogen pollution has been widely studied and is relatively well understood, its indirect effect on human allergies is not well documented.

Daily allergy burden and heart rate characteristics in adults with allergic rhinitis based on a wearable telemonitoring system.

Background: Allergic rhinitis includes a certain degree of autonomic imbalance. However, no information is available on how daily changes in allergy burden affect autonomic imbalance. We aimed to estimate associations between daily allergy burden (allergy symptoms and mood) and daily heart rate characteristics (resting heart rate and sample entropy, both biomarkers of autonomic balance) of adults with allergic rhinitis, based on real-world measurements with a wearable telemonitoring system.

Association between temperature and natural mortality in Belgium: Effect modification by individual characteristics and residential environment.

Background: There is strong evidence of mortality being associated to extreme temperatures but the extent to which individual or residential factors modulate this temperature vulnerability is less clear.

Methods: We conducted a multi-city study with a time-stratified case-crossover design and used conditional logistic regression to examine the association between extreme temperatures and overall natural and cause-specific mortality. City-specific estimates were pooled using a random-effect meta-analysis to describe the global association.

Residential green space in association with the methylation status in a CpG site within the promoter region of the placental serotonin receptor .

Green space could influence adult cognition and childhood neurodevelopment , and is hypothesized to be partly driven by epigenetic modifications. However, it remains unknown whether some of these associations are already evident during foetal development. Similar biological signals shape the developmental processes in the foetal brain and placenta.

Higher buccal mtDNA content is associated with residential surrounding green in a panel study of primary school children.

Background: Mitochondria are known to respond to environmental stressors but whether green space is associated with mitochondrial abundance is unexplored. Furthermore, as exposures may affect health from early life onwards, we here evaluate if residential green space is associated with mitochondria DNA content (mtDNAc) in children.

Methods: In primary schoolchildren (COGNAC study), between 2012 and 2014, buccal mtDNAc was repeatedly (three times) assessed using qPCR.

Residential Exposure to Urban Trees and Medication Sales for Mood Disorders and Cardiovascular Disease in Brussels, Belgium: An Ecological Study.

Background: The available evidence for positive associations between urban trees and human health is mixed, partly because the assessment of exposure to trees is often imprecise because of, for instance, exclusion of trees in private areas and the lack of three-dimensional (3D) exposure indicators (e.g., crown volume).

Impact of Short-Term Exposure to Extreme Temperatures on Mortality: A Multi-City Study in Belgium.

In light of climate change, health risks are expected to be exacerbated by more frequent high temperatures and reduced by less frequent cold extremes. To assess the impact of different climate change scenarios, it is necessary to describe the current effects of temperature on health. A time-stratified case-crossover design fitted with conditional quasi-Poisson regressions and distributed lag non-linear models was applied to estimate specific temperature-mortality associations in nine urban agglomerations in Belgium, and a random-effect meta-analysis was conducted to pool the estimates.

Residential green space and mental health-related prescription medication sales: An ecological study in Belgium.

Background: Residential green space has been associated with mental health benefits, but how such associations vary with green space types is insufficiently known.

Objective: We aimed to investigate associations between types and quantities of green space and sales of mood disorder medication in Belgium.

Methods: We used aggregated sales data of psycholeptics and psychoanaleptics prescribed to adults from 2006 to 2014.

Exposure to green space and pollen allergy symptom severity: A case-crossover study in Belgium.

Background: The prevalence of pollen allergy has increased due to urbanization, climate change and air pollution. The effects of green space and air pollution on respiratory health of pollen allergy patients are complex and best studied in spatio-temporal detail.

Methods: We tracked 144 adults sensitized to Betulaceae pollen during the tree pollen season (January-May) of 2017 and 2018 and assessed their spatio-temporal exposure to green space, allergenic trees, air pollutants and birch pollen.

Association between urban environment and mental health in Brussels, Belgium.

Background: Mental health disorders appear as a growing problem in urban areas. While common mental health disorders are generally linked to demographic and socioeconomic factors, little is known about the interaction with the urban environment. With growing urbanization, more and more people are exposed to environmental stressors potentially contributing to increased stress and impairing mental health.

Residing in urban areas with higher green space is associated with lower mortality risk: A census-based cohort study with ten years of follow-up.

Background: Epidemiological studies suggest that residing close to green space reduce mortality rates. We investigated the relationship between long-term exposure to residential green space and non-accidental and cardio-respiratory mortality.

Methods: We linked the Belgian 2001 census to population and mortality register follow-up data (2001-2011) among adults aged 30 years and older residing in the five largest urban areas in Belgium (n = 2,185,170 and mean follow-up time 9.

Residential green space and medication sales for childhood asthma: A longitudinal ecological study in Belgium.

Background: Living in green environments has been associated with various health benefits, but the evidence for positive effects on respiratory health in children is ambiguous.

Objective: To investigate if residential exposure to different types of green space is associated with childhood asthma prevalence in Belgium.

Methods: Asthma prevalence was estimated from sales data of reimbursed medication for obstructive airway disease (OAD) prescribed to children between 2010 and 2014, aggregated at census tract level (n = 1872) by sex and age group (6-12 and 13-18 years).

Heat related mortality in the two largest Belgian urban areas: A time series analysis.

Background: Summer temperatures are expected to increase and heat waves will occur more frequently, be longer, and be more intense as a result of global warming. A growing body of evidence indicates that increasing temperature and heatwaves are associated with excess mortality and therefore global heating may become a major public health threat. However, the heat-mortality relationship has been shown to be location-specific and differences could largely be explained by the most frequent temperature.

Maturation of Esophageal Motility and Esophagogastric Junction in Preterm Infants.

Background: Preterm infants commonly present with oral feeding problems. The role of maturation of esophageal bolus transport mechanisms herein remains unclear.

Objectives: To characterize esophageal motility and function of esophagogastric junction (EGJ) during deglutitive swallowing in healthy preterm infants and to describe maturational changes.

Residential green space, air pollution, socioeconomic deprivation and cardiovascular medication sales in Belgium: A nationwide ecological study.

Green space may improve cardiovascular (CV) health, for example by promoting physical activity and by reducing air pollution, noise and heat. Socioeconomic and environmental factors may modify the health effects of green space. We examined the association between residential green space and reimbursed CV medication sales in Belgium between 2006 and 2014, adjusting for socioeconomic deprivation and air pollution.

Determinants of persistent organic pollutant (POP) concentrations in human breast milk of a cross-sectional sample of primiparous mothers in Belgium.

Background: Bio-accumulation of persistent organic pollutants (POPs) in the environment and in the food chain can lead to high pollutant concentrations in human fat-containing tissues and breast milk.

Objectives: We aimed to identify the maternal characteristics that determined POP concentrations in breast milk of primiparous mothers in Belgium.

Methods: Breast milk samples were obtained from a cross-sectional sample of 206 primiparous mothers in 2014.

Long-term outcomes of very low birth weight infants with spontaneous intestinal perforation: A retrospective case-matched cohort study.

Background: Spontaneous intestinal perforation (SIP) is an intestinal complication that occurs in very ill preterms. We investigated whether SIP survivors have worse neurodevelopmental and gastrointestinal outcomes and a poorer quality of life than controls.

Methods: A retrospective case-matched cohort study was performed involving infants treated for SIP in a NICU between August 1994 and April 2014.