Background: People's perceptions of and attitudes towards pollution are critical for reducing exposure among people and can also influence the response to interventions that are aimed at encouraging behaviour change. This study assessed the perceptions and attitudes of residents in two slums in Nairobi regarding air pollution.
Methods: We conducted focus group discussions with residents aged 18 years and above using an emergent design in the formulation of the study guide. A thematic approach was used in data analysis.
Results: The discussions revealed that the two communities experience air pollution arising mainly from industries and dump sites. There was an apparent disconnect between knowledge and practice, with individuals engaging in practices that placed them at high risk of exposure to air pollution. Residents appear to have rationalized the situation in which they live in and were resigned to these conditions. Consequently, they expressed lack of agency in addressing prevalent air pollution within their communities.
Conclusions: Community-wide education on air pollution and related health effects together with the measures needed to reduce exposure to air pollution are necessary towards reducing air pollution impacts. A similar city-wide study is recommended to enable comparison of perceptions along socio-economic groups and neighbourhoods.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-14-226 | DOI Listing |
JMIR Public Health Surveill
January 2025
School of Public Health, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei City, Taiwan.
Background: Japanese encephalitis (JE) is a zoonotic parasitic disease caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), and may cause fever, nausea, headache, or meningitis. It is currently unclear whether the epidemiological characteristics of the JEV have been affected by the extreme climatic conditions that have been observed in recent years.
Objective: This study aimed to examine the epidemiological characteristics, trends, and potential risk factors of JE in Taiwan from 2008 to 2020.
BMC Public Health
January 2025
Department of Urban Planning and Design, the University of Hong Kong, 8/F, Knowles Building, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong SAR, China.
Background: Emerging research found air pollution may be associated with incident Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other dementias. However, few studies have examined these associations at the global scale. This study aimed to assess the dynamic associations between ambient air pollution and the burden of AD and other dementias worldwide.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Beijing, 100055, China.
Air pollution is a critical global environmental issue, further exacerbated by rapid industrialization and urbanization. Accurate prediction of air pollutant concentrations is essential for effective pollution prevention and control measures. The complex nature of pollutant data is influenced by fluctuating meteorological conditions, diverse pollution sources, and propagation processes, underscores the crucial importance of the spatial and temporal feature extraction for accurately predicting air pollutant concentrations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSci Rep
January 2025
The Alan Turing Institute, London, UK.
Air pollution in cities, especially NO, is linked to numerous health problems, ranging from mortality to mental health challenges and attention deficits in children. While cities globally have initiated policies to curtail emissions, real-time monitoring remains challenging due to limited environmental sensors and their inconsistent distribution. This gap hinders the creation of adaptive urban policies that respond to the sequence of events and daily activities affecting pollution in cities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnder the background of climate change, the escalating air pollution and extreme weather events have been identified as risk factors for chronic respiratory diseases (CRD), causing serious public health burden worldwide. This review aims to summarize the effects of changed atmospheric environment caused by climate change on CRD. Results indicated an increased risk of CRD (mainly COPD, asthma) associated with environmental factors, such as air pollutants, adverse meteorological conditions, extreme temperatures, sandstorms, wildfire, and atmospheric allergens.
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