1,721,344 research outputs found
Association of environmental tobacco smoke exposure in childhood with early emphysema in adulthood among nonsmokers: the MESA-lung study.
Get PDFMechanical stress to alveolar walls may cause progressive damage after an early-life insult such as exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS). This hypothesis was examined by using data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA), a population-based cohort aged 45-84 years, free of clinical cardiovascular disease, recruited from 6 US sites in 2000-2002. The MESA-Lung Study assessed a fractal, structural measure of early emphysema ("alpha," lower values indicate more emphysema) and a standard quantitative measure ("percent emphysema") from cardiac computed tomography scans. Childhood ETS exposure was assessed retrospectively as a report of living with one or more regular indoor smokers. Analyses included 1,781 nonsmokers (<100 cigarettes, 20 cigars, or 20 pipefulls in their lifetime and urinary cotinine levels <100 ng/mL); mean age was 61 years (standard deviation, 10), and 65% were women. Childhood ETS exposure from 2 or more smokers (17%) compared with none (52%) was associated with 0.05 lower alpha and 2.8 higher percent emphysema (P for trend = 0.04 and 0.01, respectively) after adjustment for demographic, anthropometric, parental, and participant characteristics, as well as adult exposures (e.g., cumulative residential air pollution exposure, exposure to ETS as an adult). Childhood ETS exposure was associated with detectable differences on computed tomography scans of adult lungs of nonsmokers.
PMID: 19942575 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]PMCID: PMC2800303 [Available on 2011/1/1]Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78014/1/Am._J._Epidemiol.-2010-Lovasi-54-62[1].pd
Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, smoking and alcohol consumption in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA)
Get PDFOBJECTIVE: To examine the association of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination with smoking and alcohol consumption in adults participating in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis.
METHODS: Data on 6680 black, Chinese, Hispanic and white adults aged 45 to 84 years of age recruited from Illinois, New York, Maryland, North Carolina, Minnesota and California during 2000 and 2002 were used for this analysis. Logistic regression was used to estimate the association of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination with smoking status and alcohol consumption for each racial/ethnic group separately.
RESULTS: Blacks were more likely to experience racial/ethnic discrimination (43%) than Hispanics (19%), Chinese participants (10%) or whites (4%, P<0.0001). In the fully-adjusted model, blacks reporting racial/ethnic discrimination had 34% and 51% greater odds of reporting smoking and drinking, respectively, than blacks who did not report racial/ethnic discrimination. Hispanics reporting racial/ethnic discrimination had 62% greater odds of heavy drinking. Whites reporting racial/ethnic discrimination had 88% greater odds of reporting being current smokers than whites who did not report racial/ethnic discrimination.
CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the experience of discrimination is associated with greater prevalence of unhealthy behaviors. Specifically, the use of smoking and alcohol may be patterned by experience of discrimination.
PMID: 20609433 [PubMed - in process]PMCID: PMC2939242 [Available on 2011/9/1]Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78013/3/2010BorellLNPerceivedracialethnicdiscrimination.pd
Mapping community determinants of heat vulnerability.
Get PDFBACKGROUND: The evidence that heat waves can result in both increased deaths and illness is substantial, and concern over this issue is rising because of climate change. Adverse health impacts from heat waves can be avoided, and epidemiologic studies have identified specific population and community characteristics that mark vulnerability to heat waves.
OBJECTIVES: We situated vulnerability to heat in geographic space and identified potential areas for intervention and further research.
METHODS: We mapped and analyzed 10 vulnerability factors for heat-related morbidity/mortality in the United States: six demographic characteristics and two household air conditioning variables from the U.S. Census Bureau, vegetation cover from satellite images, and diabetes prevalence from a national survey. We performed a factor analysis of these 10 variables and assigned values of increasing vulnerability for the four resulting factors to each of 39,794 census tracts. We added the four factor scores to obtain a cumulative heat vulnerability index value.
RESULTS: Four factors explained > 75% of the total variance in the original 10 vulnerability variables: a) social/environmental vulnerability (combined education/poverty/race/green space), b) social isolation, c) air conditioning prevalence, and d) proportion elderly/diabetes. We found substantial spatial variability of heat vulnerability nationally, with generally higher vulnerability in the Northeast and Pacific Coast and the lowest in the Southeast. In urban areas, inner cities showed the highest vulnerability to heat.
CONCLUSIONS: These methods provide a template for making local and regional heat vulnerability maps. After validation using health outcome data, interventions can be targeted at the most vulnerable populations.http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78516/1/ReidONeill2009_EnvironHealthPerspect.pd
Commentary:Estimating and understanding area health effects
Get PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57894/1/Commentary Estimating and understanding area health effects.pd
Estimating the neighborhood health effects: The challenges of casual inference in a complex world
Get PDFhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57893/1/Estimating neighborhood health effects The challenges of casual inference in a complex world.pd
Invited commentary: places, people, and health.
Get PDFNot Availablehttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/78994/1/DiezRoux2002_AJE.pd
On Genes, Individuals, Society, and Epidemiology
No full texthttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55370/1/98AJEongenes.pd
Investigating area and neighborhood effects on health
No full texthttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/55394/1/Diez Roux 2001 AJPH Investigating neighbourhood and area effects on health.pd
Integrating social and biological factors in health research: a systems view
Get PDFAn important focus of recent calls for interdisciplinary approaches in health research has been the integration of social and biomedical sciences in understanding the causes of ill-health. Typical models for the incorporation of social factors into biomedical research include social factors as distal antecedents of more proximate biologic factors and gene-environment interaction. Under both models the distinction between social and biologic factors remains clear-cut, and consideration of social factors is not indispensable for understanding the biologic processes leading to disease. However, recent evidence suggests that social and biologic processes are inextricably linked in systems. This paper reviews models for the incorporation of social factors into the study of health, discusses the potentialities of systems approaches, and highlights implications for population health and epidemiologyhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/57779/1/Integrating Social and Biological Factors in Health Research A systems view.pd
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