Increased urban greenness associated with improved mental health among middle-aged and older adults of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA).

Objectives: Some studies suggest that residential surrounding greenness is associated with improved mental health. Few of these studies have focussed on middle-aged and older adults, explored the modifying effects of social determinants of health, or accounted for the extent to which individuals interact with their neighbourhood environments.

Methods: We analysed cross-sectional data collected from 26,811 urban participants of the Canadian Longitudinal Study of Aging who were between 45 and 86 years of age.

Residential proximity to greenness and adverse birth outcomes in urban areas: Findings from a national Canadian population-based study.

Background: Over the last decade, several studies have reported that residential proximity to vegetation, or 'greenness', is associated with improved birth outcomes, including for term birth weight (TBW), preterm birth (PTB), and small for gestational age (SGA). However, there remain several uncertainties about these possible benefits including the role of air pollution, and the extent to they are influenced socioeconomic status.

Methods: We addressed these gaps using a national population-based study of 2.

Self-rated stress, distress, mental health, and health as modifiers of the association between long-term exposure to ambient pollutants and mortality.

Background: Individual and neighbourhood-scale socioeconomic characteristics modify associations between exposure to air pollution and mortality. The role of stress, which may integrate effects of social and environmental exposures on health, is unknown. We examined whether an individual's perspective on their own well-being, as assessed using self-rated measures of stress and health, modifies the pollutant-mortality relationship.

The association between ambient air pollution concentrations and psychological distress.

Background: A growing number of epidemiological studies have linked air pollution exposure to psychological conditions. Laboratory studies indicate that air pollutants can activate the neuroendocrine stress axis and modulate stress hormone levels, which could contribute to the development or exacerbation of psychological distress. The present study examined the spatial associations between air pollutants (fine particulate matter [PM], nitrogen dioxide [NO] and ground-level ozone [O]) and psychological distress among subjects in the most populous provinces in Canada.

Disease assimilation: The mortality impacts of fine particulate matter on immigrants to Canada.

Background: Immigrants make up 20% of the Canadian population; however, little is known about the mortality impacts of fine particulate matter (PM) air pollution on immigrants compared with non-immigrants, or about how impacts may change with duration in Canada.

Data And Methods: This study used the 2001 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort, a longitudinal cohort of 3.5 million individuals, of which 764,000 were classified as immigrants (foreign-born).

Low concentrations of fine particle air pollution and mortality in the Canadian Community Health Survey cohort.

Background: Approximately 2.9 million deaths are attributed to ambient fine particle air pollution around the world each year (PM). In general, cohort studies of mortality and outdoor PM concentrations have limited information on individuals exposed to low levels of PM as well as covariates such as smoking behaviours, alcohol consumption, and diet which may confound relationships with mortality.

Using maps to communicate environmental exposures and health risks: Review and best-practice recommendations.

Background: Graphical materials can be effective communication tools, and maps in particular are a potentially powerful means of conveying spatial information. Previous reviews have provided insights on the application of cartographic best practices, pitfalls to avoid, and considerations related to risk perception and communication, but none has reviewed primary studies of the effectiveness or utility of maps to users, nor have they addressed the issue from the perspective of health literacy, environmental health literacy, or public health ethics.

Objectives: To systematically identify and review the literature pertaining to evaluation of maps in general, or specific map features, as environmental exposure and health risk communication tools; to formulate best-practice recommendations; and to identify future research priorities.

Evaluation of a method to indirectly adjust for unmeasured covariates in the association between fine particulate matter and mortality.

Background: Indirect adjustment via partitioned regression is a promising technique to control for unmeasured confounding in large epidemiological studies. The method uses a representative ancillary dataset to estimate the association between variables missing in a primary dataset with the complete set of variables of the ancillary dataset to produce an adjusted risk estimate for the variable in question. The objective of this paper is threefold: 1) evaluate the method for non-linear survival models, 2) formalize an empirical process to evaluate the suitability of the required ancillary matching dataset, and 3) test modifications to the method to incorporate time-varying exposure data, and proportional weighting of datasets.

Global estimates of mortality associated with long-term exposure to outdoor fine particulate matter.

Exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) is a major global health concern. Quantitative estimates of attributable mortality are based on disease-specific hazard ratio models that incorporate risk information from multiple PM sources (outdoor and indoor air pollution from use of solid fuels and secondhand and active smoking), requiring assumptions about equivalent exposure and toxicity. We relax these contentious assumptions by constructing a PM-mortality hazard ratio function based only on cohort studies of outdoor air pollution that covers the global exposure range.

Diabetes Status and Susceptibility to the Effects of PM2.5 Exposure on Cardiovascular Mortality in a National Canadian Cohort.

Background: Diabetes is infrequently coded as the primary cause of death but may contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in response to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure. We analyzed all contributing causes of death to examine susceptibility of diabetics to CVD mortality from long-term exposure.

Effect modification of perinatal exposure to air pollution and childhood asthma incidence.

Perinatal exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with childhood asthma incidence; however, less is known regarding the potential effect modifiers in this association. We examined whether maternal and infant characteristics modified the association between perinatal exposure to air pollution and development of childhood asthma.761 172 births occurring between 2006 and 2012 were identified in the province of Ontario, Canada.

Associations between fine particulate matter and mortality in the 2001 Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort.

Background: Large cohort studies have been used to characterise the association between long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) air pollution with non-accidental, and cause-specific mortality. However, there has been no consensus as to the shape of the association between concentration and response.

Methods: To examine the shape of this association, we developed a new cohort based on respondents to the 2001 Canadian census long-form.

The association between the incidence of postmenopausal breast cancer and concentrations at street-level of nitrogen dioxide and ultrafine particles.

Background: There is scant information as to whether traffic-related air pollution is associated with the incidence of breast cancer. Nitrogen dioxide (NO) and ultrafine particles (UFPs, <0.1µm), are two pollutants that capture intra-urban variations in traffic-related air pollution and may also be associated with incidence.

Maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and risk of early childhood cancers: A population-based study in Ontario, Canada.

Background: There are increasing concerns regarding the role of exposure to ambient air pollution during pregnancy in the development of early childhood cancers.

Objective: This population based study examined whether prenatal and early life (<1year of age) exposures to ambient air pollutants, including nitrogen dioxide (NO) and particulate matter with aerodynamic diameters ≤2.5μm (PM), were associated with selected common early childhood cancers in Canada.

A class of non-linear exposure-response models suitable for health impact assessment applicable to large cohort studies of ambient air pollution.

The effectiveness of regulatory actions designed to improve air quality is often assessed by predicting changes in public health resulting from their implementation. Risk of premature mortality from long-term exposure to ambient air pollution is the single most important contributor to such assessments and is estimated from observational studies generally assuming a log-linear, no-threshold association between ambient concentrations and death. There has been only limited assessment of this assumption in part because of a lack of methods to estimate the shape of the exposure-response function in very large study populations.

Socioeconomic differences in nitrogen dioxide ambient air pollution exposure among children in the three largest Canadian cities.

Background: Nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is a marker for traffic-related air pollution, which exhibits strong spatial gradients in large cities. Previous studies have shown that in Canadian cities, exposure to ambient NO₂ is greater in neighbourhoods of low socioeconomic status (SES). As a result of these differences in exposure, air pollution-related health problems may be more prevalent among children in lower SES urban neighbourhoods.

A national study of the association between traffic-related air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes in Canada, 1999-2008.

Numerous studies have examined the association of air pollution with preterm birth and birth weight outcomes. Traffic-related air pollution has also increasingly been identified as an important contributor to adverse health effects of air pollution. We employed a national nitrogen dioxide (NO2) exposure model to examine the association between NO2 and pregnancy outcomes in Canada between 1999 and 2008.

Ambient air pollution and adverse birth outcomes: Differences by maternal comorbidities.

Background: Prenatal exposure to ambient air pollution has been associated with adverse birth outcomes, but the potential modifying effect of maternal comorbidities remains understudied. Our objective was to investigate whether associations between prenatal air pollution exposures and birth outcomes differ by maternal comorbidities.

Methods: A total of 818,400 singleton live births were identified in the province of Ontario, Canada from 2005 to 2012.

Spatial associations between socioeconomic groups and NO2 air pollution exposure within three large Canadian cities.

Previous studies of environmental justice in Canadian cities have linked lower socioeconomic status to greater air pollution exposures at coarse geographic scales, (i.e., Census Tracts).

Risk estimates of mortality attributed to low concentrations of ambient fine particulate matter in the Canadian community health survey cohort.

Background: Understanding the shape of the relationship between long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM2.5) concentrations and health risks is critical for health impact and risk assessment. Studies evaluating the health risks of exposure to low concentrations of PM2.

Oxidative burden of fine particulate air pollution and risk of cause-specific mortality in the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC).

Backround: Fine particulate air pollution (PM2.5) is known to contribute to cardiorespiratory mortality but it is not clear how PM2.5 oxidative burden (i.

Long-Term Ozone Exposure and Mortality in a Large Prospective Study.

Rationale: Tropospheric ozone (O3) is potentially associated with cardiovascular disease risk and premature death. Results from long-term epidemiological studies on O3 are scarce and inconclusive.

Objectives: In this study, we examined associations between chronic ambient O3 exposure and all-cause and cause-specific mortality in a large cohort of U.

Associations of Pregnancy Outcomes and PM2.5 in a National Canadian Study.

Background: Numerous studies have examined associations between air pollution and pregnancy outcomes, but most have been restricted to urban populations living near monitors.

Objectives: We examined the association between pregnancy outcomes and fine particulate matter in a large national study including urban and rural areas.

Methods: Analyses were based on approximately 3 million singleton live births in Canada between 1999 and 2008.

Long-term Exposure to Fine Particulate Matter Air Pollution and Mortality Among Canadian Women.

Background: Long-term exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) has been associated with increased mortality, especially from cardiovascular disease. There are, however, uncertainties about the nature of the exposure-response relation at lower concentrations.