Fattori socio-ambientali associati allo stato nutrizionale in bambini di 6-8 anni residenti in 5 citta’ italiane

FATTORI SOCIO-AMBIENTALI ASSOCIATI ALLO STATO NUTRIZIONALE IN BAMBINI DI 6-8 ANNI RESIDENTI IN 5 CITTA’ ITALIANE Introduzione. Nell’ambito del progetto MAPEC_LIFE (LIFE 12 ENV/IT/000614) è stato condotto in 5 città italiane (Brescia, Lecce, Perugia, Pisa, Torino) uno studio su stato di salute, stili di vita, contesto ambientale e abitudini alimentari di bambini di 6-8 anni frequentanti la scuola primaria. Metodi. I dati sono stati rilevati mediante la compilazione di un questionario somministrato ai genitori. Tra le informazioni ottenute si riportano i risultati preliminari relativi all’associazione tra lo stato nutrizionale dei bambini ed alcuni fattori socio-ambientali (ambiente di vita, attività fisica, contesto familiare). Secondo le indicazioni dell’ “International Obesity Task Force” e in accordo con quanto adottato da molti paesi nelle sorveglianze nutrizionali, sono stati utilizzati per la definizione di sovrappeso e obesità i valori soglia di Indice di Massa Corporea (IMC) identificati da Cole et al. (2000), rispettivamente IMC>85° percentile e IMC>95° percentile. Risultati. In totale sono stati reclutati 1354 bambini (50,5% maschi) di cui 1014 (74,9%) normopeso, 194 (14,3%) sovrappeso e 146 (10,8%) obesi. Tra le città, Pisa presenta la quota maggiore di bambini sovrappeso (16,7%) ed obesi (13,1%) mentre i bambini di Torino evidenziano lo stato nutrizionale migliore (76,9% normopeso). Sono emerse differenze di genere: la quota di sovrappeso e di obesi è maggiore (p<0,01) tra i maschi (15,5% e 12,6%) rispetto alle femmine (13,1% e 8,96%). Riguardo i fattori socio-ambientali emerge un’associazione significativa (p<0,01) tra lo stato nutrizionale dei bambini ed il tasso di scolarizzazione superiore dei genitori pari all’80,7% nei normopeso e al 73,8% negli obesi. Inoltre, si registra una quota maggiore di obesi (p<0,01) tra i bambini nati all’estero (21,3%) e tra quelli nati da genitori stranieri (15,1%). Conclusioni. Lo studio evidenzia l’importanza di interventi educativi sull’alimentazione e sugli stili di vita nelle scuole primarie che coinvolgano anche le famiglie

Awareness-raising on air quality and health effects in primary school children

Background MAPEC_LIFE is a project founded by EU Life+ Programme (LIFE12 ENV/IT/000614) which intends to evaluate the associations between air pollution and early biological effects in children. One of the objectives of the project is to raise children awareness on air quality and its health effects. Objectives An educational package, containing leaflets for teachers, a cartoon and three educational videogames, was created and validated for primary school students. In the first phase of the study, the package was set up for understandability and usability on small groups of children and teachers and then tested for pleasantness and efficacy in improving knowledge on 266 children who attended 6 primary schools in 4 Italian cities. A control group of 51 children received only explanations from teachers. In the second phase, the action of improving awareness was extended to 3800 children with the help of 190 teachers. Results Considering the differences between total scores before and after the educational activities a significant increase was observed in the first phase. The mean score in the postknowledge test (11.01 0.1186) was higher than the mean score in the pre-knowledge test (9.199 0.1347) (p < 0.0001). The increase in knowledge for second graders (p < 0.0001) was higher than for third graders (p = 0.0134), indicating that this grade level should be the choice target. Moreover, in second graders the difference in the mean scores was greater compared with the control group (2.223 vs. 0.96, respectively), demonstrating the effectiveness of audiovisual tools. In the second phase, the usefulness of the tools to promote new knowledge was evaluated positively by all teachers and videogames were greatly appreciated by the majority of children. Conclusions This intervention of environmental education and health literacy, approaching children with tailored messages and tools, appeared to be very useful, improving children knowledge and stimulating their interest

Air Pollution and Health: Study of Citizen's Attitudes and Behaviours using Multiple Sources

Background In Italy, in December 2015 and January 2016, the routine air monitoring showed a peak of pollution (PM10 in particular) that caused alarm in many cities and was widely reported by mass media. After some weeks from this alarm, we tried to understand the people awareness towards air pollution and their positive behaviors, using different sources of information. Methods A questionnaire, asking attitudes and behaviours related to air pollution, was administered during an educational program in the context of EU funded MAPEC-life project. Parallel, a quantitative and qualitative analysis was performed on Internet search query data, on newspapers (two national and two local) and on Twitter. These two last kind of sources were collected and analyzed with qualitative analysis software. Results The media coverage of the theme of air pollution was very high at the end of 2015 and beginning of 2016, with 1.721newspaper articles published in December-January, followed by a decay in interest (321 in February-March). The same trend was observed also in the internet searches (26.200 vs 6800) and in Twitter. The 57.69% of respondents believe that they can play high role in reducing air pollution but attribute the most important role to the political and environmental protection institutions. The percentage of adopting positive behaviours(always or sometimes) ranged from 91.69% for separate collections of waste to 33.24% for use of public transport. The major obstacles against the adoption of positive behaviours were high costs and the lack of time (33.29%) and of institutional support (27.52%). Finally, participants consider relevant the role of children in promoting positive behaviours in the family (57.31%). Conclusions The study can be useful for future program of citizen education, but further research are needed on the perceived obstacles against positive behaviours

Health Risk Associated with Exposure to PM10 and Benzene in Three Italian Towns

Air pollution in urban areas is a major concern as it negatively affects the health of a large number of people. The purpose of this study was to assess the inhalation health risk for exposure to PM10 and benzene of the populations living in three Italian cities. Data regarding PM10 and benzene daily measured by "traffic" stations and "background" stations in Torino, Perugia, and Lecce during 2014 and 2015 were compared to the limits indicated in the Directive 2008/50/EC. In addition, an inhalation risk analysis for exposure to benzene was performed for adults and children by applying the standard United States Environmental Protection Agency's (USEPA) methodology. The levels of PM10 detected in Torino exceeded the legal limits in both years with an increased mean concentration >10 µg/m³ comparing with background station. Benzene concentrations never exceeded the legislative target value. The increased cancer risk (ICR) for children exposed to benzene was greater than 1 × 10-6 only in the city of Torino, while for adults, the ICR was higher than 1 × 10-6 in all the cities. The results suggest the need for emission reduction policies to preserve human health from continuous and long exposure to air pollutants. A revision of legal limits would also be recommended

Monitoring air pollution effects on children for supporting public health policy: The protocol of the prospective cohort MAPEC study

Introduction: Genotoxic biomarkers have been studied largely in adult population, but few studies so far have investigated them in children exposed to air pollution. Children are a high-risk group as regards the health effects of air pollution and some studies suggest that early exposure during childhood can play an important role in the development of chronic diseases in adulthood. The objective of the project is to evaluate the associations between the concentration of urban air pollutants and biomarkers of early biological effect in children, and to propose a model for estimating the global risk of early biological effects due to air pollutants and other factors in children. Methods and analysis: Two biomarkers of early biological effects, DNA damage by the comet assay and the micronuclei (MN) test, will be investigated in oral mucosa cells of 6–8-year-old children. Concurrently, some toxic airborne pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) and nitro-PAH) and in vitro air mutagenicity and toxicity in ultra-fine air particulates (PM0.5) will be evaluated. Furthermore, demographic and socioeconomic variables, other sources of exposures to air pollutants and lifestyle variables will be assessed by a structured questionnaire. The associations between sociodemographic, environmental and other exposure variables and biomarkers of early biological effect using univariate and multivariate models will be analysed. A tentative model for calculating the global absolute risk of having early biological effects caused by air pollution and other variables will be proposed. Ethics and dissemination: The project has been approved by the Ethics Committees of the local Health Authorities. The results will be communicated to local Public Health Agencies, for supporting educational programmes and health policy strategies. LIFE+2012 Environment Policy and Governance. LIFE12 ENV/IT/ 000614