Area deprivation and its association with health in a cross-sectional study: are the results biased by recent migration?

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The association between area deprivation and health has mostly been examined in cross-sectional studies or prospective studies with short follow-up. These studies have rarely taken migration into account. This is a possible source of misclassification of exposure, i.e. an unknown number of study participants are attributed an exposure of area deprivation that they may have experienced too short for it to have any influence. The aim of this article was to examine to what extent associations between area deprivation and health outcomes were biased by recent migration.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Based on data from the Oslo Health Study, a cross-sectional study conducted in 2000 in Oslo, Norway, we used six health outcomes (self rated health, mental health, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, smoking and exercise) and considered migration nine years prior to the study conduct. Migration into Oslo, between the areas of Oslo, and the changes in area deprivation during the period were taken into account. Associations were investigated by multilevel logistic regression analyses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>After adjustment for individual socio-demographic variables we found significant associations between area deprivation and all health outcomes. Accounting for migration into Oslo and between areas of Oslo did not change these associations much. However, the people who migrated into Oslo were younger and had lower prevalences of unfavourable health outcomes than those who were already living in Oslo. But since they were evenly distributed across the area deprivation quintiles, they had little influence on the associations between area deprivation and health. Evidence of selective migration within Oslo was weak, as both moving up and down in the deprivation hierarchy was associated with significantly worse health than not moving.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We have documented significant associations between area deprivation and health outcomes in Oslo after adjustment for socio-demographic variables in a cross-sectional study. These associations were weakly biased by recent migration. From our results it still appears that migration prior to study conduct may be relevant to investigate even within a relatively short period of time, whereas changes in area deprivation during such a period is of limited interest.</p

Wild Meat Is Still on the Menu: Progress in Wild Meat Research, Policy, and Practice from 2002 to 2020

Several hundred species are hunted for wild meat in the tropics, supporting the diets, customs, and livelihoods of millions of people. However, unsustainable hunting is one of the most urgent threats to wildlife and ecosystems worldwide and has serious ramifications for people whose subsistence and income are tied to wild meat. Over the past 18 years, although research efforts have increased, scientific knowledge has largely not translated into action. One major barrier to progress has been insufficient monitoring and evaluation, meaning that the effectiveness of interventions cannot be ascertained. Emerging issues include the difficulty of designing regulatory frameworks that disentangle the different purposes of hunting, the large scale of urban consumption, and the implications of wild meat consumption for human health. To address these intractable challenges, we propose eight new recommendations for research and action for sustainable wild meat use, which would support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Investigating environmental determinants of diet, physical activity, and overweight among adults in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

There is worldwide recognition that the burden of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) and obesity-related health problems is rapidly increasing in low- and middle-income countries. Environmental determinants of obesity are likely to differ between countries, particularly in those undergoing rapid socioeconomic and nutrition transitions such as Brazil. This study aims to describe some built environment and local food environment variables and to explore their association with the overweight rate and diet and physical activity area-level aggregated indicators of adults living in the city of Sao Paulo, the largest city in Brazil. This formative study includes an ecological analysis of environmental factors associated with overweight across 31 submunicipalities of the city of Sao Paulo using statistical and spatial analyses. Average prevalence of overweight was 41.69% (95% confidence interval 38.74, 44.64), ranging from 27.14% to 60.75% across the submunicipalities. There was a wide geographical variation of both individual diet and physical activity, and indicators of food and built environments, favoring wealthier areas. After controlling for area socioeconomic status, there was a positive correlation between regular fruits and vegetables (FV) intake and density of FV specialized food markets (r = 0.497; p < 0.001), but no relationship between fast-food restaurant density and overweight prevalence was found. A negative association between overweight prevalence and density of parks and public sport facilities was seen (r = -0.527; p < 0.05). Understanding the relationship between local neighborhood environments and increasing rates of poor diet, physical activity, and obesity is essential in countries undergoing rapid economic and urban development, such as Brazil, in order to provide insights for policies to reduce increasing rates of NCDs and food access and health inequalities