Time-Series Analysis of Infant Mortality Disaggregated by Race, Ethnicity, and Specific Causes After 6-Week Abortion Ban.

Introduction: In 2021, Texas Senate Bill 8 banned abortion after 6 weeks of gestation. Prior research has shown persistent differences in infant mortality by race/ethnicity and an overall increase in infant mortality in association with Senate Bill 8. It is unclear whether recent changes may be differential by race, ethnicity, and causes of death.

Association of reproductive access restrictions and out-of-state abortion care in Colorado: an interrupted time series analysis for 2018 to 2024.

Objective: Access to abortion has changed dramatically in the United States in recent years, both at the federal and state level. For nearly 50 years, the right to abortion was considered a federally protected right under the Roev. Wade (1973) recognition of privacy rights under the 14th Amendment.

Impact of improved air quality on lung function and blood pressure of middle-aged and older population in China.

Long-term exposure to fine particulate matters (PM) has been associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases and the burden are potentially higher in China experiencing heavy air pollution. In this study, we established the exposure-response association between long-term exposures to PM and lung function and blood pressure in Chinese middle-aged and older adults using linear mixed-effects and generalized additive mixed models based on 3 waves longitudinal health outcomes data by enrolling 19,988 participants from 121 cities across the mainland of China. We also assessed the effect of Clean Air Policy (CAP) based on a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences (DID) design.

Interactive Effect of Air Temperature and Fine Particulate Matter on the Hospital Admissions for Stroke in Shenzhen, China.

Background: Stroke is a major health challenge in China. Numerous studies have linked stroke with temperature and fine particulate matter (PM), but findings varied by stroke subtypes and regions, and few explored the interactive effects of air temperature and PM. This study examines the association between air temperature, PM, and stroke hospital admissions in Shenzhen, a subtropical monsoon city in southern China.

The Association of County-Level Presidential Election Outcome and COVID-19 Mortality in Colorado, 2020-2022.

Context: The Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic occurred during a time of political tension in the United States. County-level political environment may have been influential in COVID-19 outcomes.

Objective: This study examined the association between county-level political environment and age-adjusted COVID-19 mortality rates from 2020 to 2022.

Urbanization exacerbates disparities in exposure to air pollution in China.

Prolonged exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) is associated with harmful impacts on human health and population growth in urban areas has exacerbated this exposure. In this study, we compare the exposure between cities at a national level and between different regions within cities considering the population in situ. We estimate the impacts of pollution and population on exposure by spatial and time series analysis from 2000 to 2018 based on 1-km grid data.

Bridging Differences in Cohort Analyses of the Relationship between Secondhand Smoke Exposure during Pregnancy and Birth Weight: The Transportability Framework in the ECHO Program.

Background: Estimates for the effects of environmental exposures on health outcomes, including secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure, often present considerable variability across studies. Knowledge of the reasons behind these differences can aid our understanding of effects in specific populations as well as inform practices of combining data from multiple studies.

Objectives: This study aimed to assess the presence of effect modification by measured sociodemographic characteristics on the effect of SHS exposure during pregnancy on birth weights that may drive differences observed across cohorts.

Reducing air pollution does not necessarily reduce related adults' mortality burden: Variations in 177 countries with different economic levels.

Prolonged exposure to PM is associated with increased mortality. However, reducing air pollution concentrations does not necessarily reduce the related burden of deaths. Here, we aim to estimate the variations in PM-related mortality due to contributions from key factors - PM concentration, population exposure, and healthcare levels - for 177 countries from 2000 to 2018 at the 1-km grid scale according to the Global Mortality Exposure Model (GEMM) model.

Diesel exhaust and respiratory dust exposure in miners and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) mortality in DEMS II.

Background: Diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures in the mining industry have not been studied in depth with respect to non-malignant respiratory disease including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), with most available evidence coming from other settings.

Objectives: To assess the relationship between occupational diesel exhaust and respirable dust exposures and COPD mortality, while addressing issues of survivor bias in exposed miners.

Methods: The study population consisted of 11,817 male workers from the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study II, followed from 1947 to 2015, with 279 observed COPD deaths.

A Bayesian joint model for compositional mediation effect selection in microbiome data.

Analyzing multivariate count data generated by high-throughput sequencing technology in microbiome research studies is challenging due to the high-dimensional and compositional structure of the data and overdispersion. In practice, researchers are often interested in investigating how the microbiome may mediate the relation between an assigned treatment and an observed phenotypic response. Existing approaches designed for compositional mediation analysis are unable to simultaneously determine the presence of direct effects, relative indirect effects, and overall indirect effects, while quantifying their uncertainty.

Associations between Prenatal and Postnatal Exposure to Cannabis with Cognition and Behavior at Age 5 Years: The Healthy Start Study.

Background: Prenatal exposure to cannabis may influence childhood cognition and behavior, but the epidemiologic evidence is mixed. Even less is known about the potential impact of secondhand exposure to cannabis during early childhood.

Objective: This study sought to assess whether prenatal and/or postnatal exposure to cannabis was associated with childhood cognition and behavior.

Associations between prenatal and early-life air pollution exposure and lung function in young children: Exploring influential windows of exposure on lung development.

Background: Evidence in the literature suggests that air pollution exposures experienced prenatally and early in life can be detrimental to normal lung development, however the specific timing of critical windows during development is not fully understood.

Objectives: We evaluated air pollution exposures during the prenatal and early-life period in association with lung function at ages 6-9, in an effort to identify potentially influential windows of exposure for lung development.

Methods: Our study population consisted of 222 children aged 6-9 from the Fresno-Clovis metro area in California with spirometry data collected between May 2015 and May 2017.

Traffic-related air pollution is associated with glucose dysregulation, blood pressure, and oxidative stress in children.

Background: Metabolic syndrome increases the risk of cardiovascular disease in adults. Antecedents likely begin in childhood and whether childhood exposure to air pollution plays a contributory role is not well understood.

Objectives: To assess whether children's exposure to air pollution is associated with markers of risk for metabolic syndrome and oxidative stress, a hypothesized mediator of air pollution-related health effects.

Native American Ancestry and Air Pollution Interact to Impact Bronchodilator Response in Puerto Rican Children with Asthma.

Objective: Asthma is the most common chronic disease in children. Short-acting bronchodilator medications are the most commonly prescribed asthma treatment worldwide, regardless of disease severity. Puerto Rican children display the highest asthma morbidity and mortality of any US population.

Associations of Residential Brownness and Greenness with Fasting Glucose in Young Healthy Adults Living in the Desert.

Evolutionary psychology theories propose that contact with green, natural environments may benefit physical health, but little comparable evidence exists for brown, natural environments, such as the desert. In this study, we examined the association between "brownness" and "greenness" with fasting glucose among young residents of El Paso, Texas. We defined brownness as the surface not covered by vegetation or impervious land within Euclidian buffers around participants' homes.

Educational note: addressing special cases of bias that frequently occur in perinatal epidemiology.

The epidemiologic study of pregnancy and birth outcomes may be hindered by several unique and challenging issues. Pregnancy is a time-limited period in which severe cohort attrition takes place between conception and birth and adverse outcomes are complex and multi-factorial. Biases span those familiar to epidemiologists: selection, confounding and information biases.

Comment on "A global-scale ecological niche model to predict SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus infection rate", author Coro.

In this letter we present comments on the article "A global-scale ecological niche model to predict SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus" by Coro published in 2020.

Improved asthma outcomes observed in the vicinity of coal power plant retirement, retrofit, and conversion to natural gas.

Coal-fired power plants release substantial air pollution, including over 60% of U.S. sulfur dioxide (SO) emissions in 2014.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease mortality: The Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS).

Background: Miners are highly exposed to diesel exhaust emissions from powered equipment. Although biologically plausible, there is little evidence based on quantitative exposure assessment, that long-term diesel exposure increases risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). To fill this gap, we examined COPD mortality and diesel exhaust exposure in the Diesel Exhaust in Miners Study (DEMS).

Accelerated lung function decline in an aluminium manufacturing industry cohort exposed to PM: an application of the parametric g-formula.

Objective: Occupational dust exposure has been associated with accelerated lung function decline, which in turn is associated with overall morbidity and mortality. In the current study, we assess potential benefits on lung function of hypothetical interventions that would reduce occupational exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) while adjusting for the healthy worker survivor effect.

Methods: Analyses were performed in a cohort of 6485 hourly male workers in an aluminium manufacturing company in the USA, followed between 1996 and 2013.

In utero tobacco smoke exposure, DNA methylation, and asthma in Latino children.

Background: Maternal smoking during pregnancy is a risk factor for chronic disease later in life and has been associated with variability of DNA methylation at specific cytosine-phosphate-guanine (CpG) loci. We assessed the role of DNA methylation as a potential mediator of adverse effects of in utero tobacco smoke exposures on asthma outcomes in Latino children from the US mainland and Puerto Rico.

Methods: Relationships between self-reported exposure and DNA methylation at CpG loci previously reported to be associated with maternal smoking were assessed in a subsample consisting of 572 children aged 8-21 years (310 cases with asthma, 262 healthy controls), sampled from a larger asthma case-control study.