Repeated measurements of household air pollution may provide better estimates of average exposure but can add to costs and participant burden. In a randomized trial of gas versus biomass cookstoves in four countries, we took supplemental personal 24-h measurements on a 10% subsample for mothers and infants, interspersed between protocol samples. Mothers had up to five postrandomization protocol measurements over 16 months, while infants had three measurements over one year.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExposure to household air pollution has been linked to adverse health outcomes among women aged 40-79. Little is known about how shifting from biomass cooking to a cleaner fuel like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) could impact exposures for this population. We report 24-h exposures to particulate matter (PM), black carbon (BC), and carbon monoxide (CO) among women aged 40 to <80 years participating in the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network trial.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCognitive impairment and dementia have long been recognized as growing public health threats. Studies have found that air pollution is a potential risk factor for dementia, but the literature remains inconclusive. This study aimed to evaluate the association between three major air pollutants (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The associations of PM mass and various adverse health outcomes have been widely investigated. However, fewer studies focused on the potential health impacts of PM components, especially for dementia and Alzheimer's diseases (AD).
Methods: We constructed a nationwide population-based open cohort study among Medicare beneficiaries aged 65 or older during 2000-2018.
Background: Fine particulate matter (PM) exposure is adversely linked to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD). However, most studies focused on PM mass rather than its chemical composition and specific sources. Particulate pollution sources can have distinct, cumulative, and potentially synergistic health impacts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAs wildfires increasingly impact the global economy and public health, understanding their effects is crucial. Particularly, the relationship between wildfires and anxiety disorders remains unclear. In this study, we explore this association by analyzing 1,897,865 emergency department visits for anxiety disorders in the western United States.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Longitudinal trends in per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) serum concentrations across pregnancy have not been thoroughly examined, despite evidence linking prenatal PFAS exposures with adverse birth outcomes.
Objectives: We sought to characterize longitudinal PFAS concentrations across pregnancy and to examine the maternal-fetal transfer ratio among participants in a study of risk and protective factors for adverse birth outcomes among African Americans.
Methods: In the Atlanta African American Maternal-Child cohort (2014-2020), we quantified serum concentrations of four PFAS in 376 participants and an additional eight PFAS in a subset of 301 participants during early (8-14 weeks gestation) and late pregnancy (24-30 weeks gestation).
Background: Anemia is common in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), causing significant health issues and social burdens. Exposure to household air pollution from using biomass fuels for cooking and heating has been associated with anemia, but the exposure-response association has not been studied.
Objectives: We evaluated the associations between personal exposure to air pollution and both hemoglobin levels and anemia prevalence among pregnant women in a multi-country randomized controlled trial.
Background: Household air pollution might lead to fetal growth restriction during pregnancy. We aimed to investigate whether a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) intervention to reduce personal exposures to household air pollution during pregnancy would alter fetal growth.
Methods: The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial was an open-label randomised controlled trial conducted in ten resource-limited settings across Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda.
Exposure to household air pollution is a leading cause of ill-health globally. The Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) randomized controlled trial evaluated the impact of a free liquefied petroleum gas stove and fuel intervention on birth outcomes and maternal and child health. As part of HAPIN, an extensive exposure assessment was conducted.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are ubiquitous environmental contaminants. Prior analysis in the large "C8 Health Project" population defined abnormal alanine aminotransferase (ALT) with statistically derived cutoffs (>45 IU/L in men, >34 IU/L in women).
Objective: To explore the degree to which PFOA was associated with modern, clinically predictive ALT biomarker cutoffs in obese and nonobese participants, excluding those with diagnosed liver disease.
Background: Household air pollution (HAP) from solid fuel use is associated with adverse birth outcomes, but data for exposure-response relationships are scarce. We examined associations between HAP exposures and birthweight in rural Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda during the Household Air Pollution Intervention Network (HAPIN) trial.
Methods: The HAPIN trial recruited pregnant women (9-<20 weeks of gestation) in rural Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda and randomly allocated them to receive a liquefied petroleum gas stove or not (ie, and continue to use biomass fuel).
The fate of environmental chemicals in maternal and fetal tissues might be affected by pregnancy-related hemodynamic changes that occur across gestation. Specifically, hemodilution and renal function are hypothesized to confound associations between per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) exposure measures in late pregnancy with gestational length and fetal growth. We sought to analyze two pregnancy-related hemodynamic biomarkers, creatinine and estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR), as confounders of the trimester-specific relationships between maternal serum PFAS concentrations and adverse birth outcomes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCooking and heating using solid fuels can result in dangerous levels of exposure to household air pollution (HAP). HAPIN is an ongoing randomized controlled trial assessing the impact of a liquified petroleum gas stove and fuel intervention on HAP exposure and health in Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda among households that rely primarily on solid cooking fuels. Given the potential impacts of HAP exposure on cardiovascular outcomes during pregnancy, we seek to characterize the relationship between personal exposures to HAP and blood pressure among pregnant women at baseline (prior to intervention) in the study.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere, we present a visual representation of standard procedures to collect population-level data on personal exposures to household air pollution (HAP) from two different study sites in a resource-constrained setting of Tamil Nadu, India. Particulate matter PM2.5 (particles smaller than 2.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Ambient temperatures are projected to increase in the future due to climate change. Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Alzheimer's disease-related dementia (ADRD) affect millions of individuals and represent substantial health burdens in the US. High temperature may be a risk factor for AD/ADRD outcomes with several recent studies reporting associations between temperature and AD mortality.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGrowing evidence suggests that fine particulate matter (PM) likely increases the risks of dementia, yet little is known about the relative contributions of different constituents. Here, we conducted a nationwide population-based cohort study (2000 to 2017) by integrating the Medicare Chronic Conditions Warehouse database and two independently sourced datasets of high-resolution PM major chemical composition, including black carbon (BC), organic matter (OM), nitrate (NO), sulfate (SO), ammonium (NH), and soil dust (DUST). To investigate the impact of long-term exposure to PM constituents on incident all-cause dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD), hazard ratios for dementia and AD were estimated using Cox proportional hazards models, and penalized splines were used to evaluate potential nonlinear concentration-response (C-R) relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Alzheimer's disease (AD) incidence is thought to be higher among Black than White individuals.
Methods: We studied the US Medicare population from 2000 to 2018. Cox regression was used to determine the roles of race and co-morbidities for AD incidence.
Background: Exposure during pregnancy to household air pollution caused by the burning of solid biomass fuel is associated with adverse health outcomes, including low birth weight. Whether the replacement of a biomass cookstove with a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cookstove would result in an increase in birth weight is unclear.
Methods: We performed a randomized, controlled trial involving pregnant women (18 to <35 years of age and at 9 to <20 weeks' gestation as confirmed on ultrasonography) in Guatemala, India, Peru, and Rwanda.