An Overview of Environmental Risk Factors for Food Allergy

IgE-mediated food allergy is an increasing public health concern in many regions around the world. Although genetics play a role in the development of food allergy, the reported increase has occurred largely within a single generation and therefore it is unlikely that this can be accounted for by changes in the human genome. Environmental factors must play a key role. While there is strong evidence to support the early introduction of allergenic solids to prevent food allergy, this is unlikely to be sufficient to prevent all food allergy. The purpose of this review is to summarize the evidence on risk factors for food allergy with a focus the outdoor physical environment. We discuss emerging evidence of mechanisms that could explain a role for vitamin D, air pollution, environmental greenness, and pollen exposure in the development of food allergy. We also describe the recent extension of the dual allergen exposure hypothesis to potentially include the respiratory epithelial barrier in addition to the skin. Few existing studies have examined the relationship between these environmental factors with objective measures of IgE-mediated food allergy and further research in this area is needed. Future research also needs to consider the complex interplay between multiple environmental factors

Linking GPS and travel diary data using sequence alignment in a study of children's independent mobility

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Global positioning systems (<b>GPS</b>) are increasingly being used in health research to determine the location of study participants. Combining GPS data with data collected via travel/activity diaries allows researchers to assess where people travel in conjunction with data about trip purpose and accompaniment. However, linking GPS and diary data is problematic and to date the only method has been to match the two datasets manually, which is time consuming and unlikely to be practical for larger data sets. This paper assesses the feasibility of a new sequence alignment method of linking GPS and travel diary data in comparison with the manual matching method.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>GPS and travel diary data obtained from a study of children's independent mobility were linked using sequence alignment algorithms to test the proof of concept. Travel diaries were assessed for quality by counting the number of errors and inconsistencies in each participant's set of diaries. The success of the sequence alignment method was compared for higher versus lower quality travel diaries, and for accompanied versus unaccompanied trips. Time taken and percentage of trips matched were compared for the sequence alignment method and the manual method.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The sequence alignment method matched 61.9% of all trips. Higher quality travel diaries were associated with higher match rates in both the sequence alignment and manual matching methods. The sequence alignment method performed almost as well as the manual method and was an order of magnitude faster. However, the sequence alignment method was less successful at fully matching trips and at matching unaccompanied trips.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Sequence alignment is a promising method of linking GPS and travel diary data in large population datasets, especially if limitations in the trip detection algorithm are addressed.</p

Green space in health research : An overview of common indicators of greenness

Human environments influence human health in both positive and negative ways. Green space is considered an environmental exposure that confers benefits to human health and has attracted a high level of interest from researchers, policy makers, and increasingly clinicians. Green space has been associated with a range of health benefits, such as improvements in physical, mental, and social wellbeing. There are different sources, metrics and indicators of green space used in research, all of which measure different aspects of the environment. It is important that readers of green space research understand the terminology used in this field, and what the green space indicators used in the studies represent in the real world. This paper provides an overview of the major definitions of green space and the indicators used to assess exposure for health practitioners, public health researchers, and health policy experts who may be interested in understanding this field more clearly, either in the provision of public health-promoting services or to undertake research

Keeping kids safe for active travel to school: A mixed method examination of school policies and practices and children's school travel behaviour.

Active school travel contributes to children's physical, mental and social wellbeing. The prevalence of children's active school travel, however, has been declining in many developed countries. Gaining insights into school culture and environments in relation to school travel behaviour is crucial to inform interventions. Using a multiphase mixed methods approach, this study aimed to provide a comprehensive understanding of how school policies and practices supported or inhibited school travel behaviour in Auckland, New Zealand. Data were drawn from Neighbourhoods for Active Kids, a cross-sectional study of 1085 children aged 8-13 years between February 2015 and December 2016. School representatives were interviewed regarding their policies and practices related to school travel behaviour and traffic around school, and the data were analysed thematically. An overarching theme, sub-themes and categories were contextualised for quantitative modelling using objectively measured school variables (school socioeconomic status, active school travel programme, built environments around school). Mixed effects multinomial logistic regression models were employed to determine associations between school travel mode and objectively measured child (sociodemographic characteristics, traffic safety perceptions) and school variables. Safety was the core concept of school travel policies, procedures and programmes. Significant differences in child variables, school socioeconomic status, and cycle lanes and traffic lights around school were found between children who actively travelled or used public transport to school and those driven to school. Overall, this study demonstrated the important role of school policy and procedures and the potential application of an intersectoral approach for interventions to support changes in school travel behaviour.This work was supported by the Health Research Council of New Zealand [grant number 14/436]; and the Medical Research Council [MC_UU_12015/7]. The work was undertaken under the auspices of the Centre for Diet and Activity Research (CEDAR), a UKCRC Public Health Research Centre of Excellence which was funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Economic and Social Research Council, Medical Research Council, the National Institute for Health Research, and the Wellcome Trust. Melody Smith was supported by a Health Research Council of New Zealand Sir Charles Hercus Research Fellowship [17/013]. Suzanne Mavoa was supported by an Australian National Health and Medical Research Council Early Career Fellowship [No. 1121035]

Children's physical activity and active travel: a cross-sectional study of activity spaces, sociodemographic and neighborhood associations

Measures of individual mobility, such as activity space, have been previously used to help improve our understanding of individuals' interactions with their everyday environments. However, such methods have rarely been adopted in studying children's physical activity and active travel behavior. In this study, we use a combination of participatory mapping and accelerometer data collected from children aged 8-13 years living in Tamaki Makaurau/Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, to describe children's travel behavior and explore associations of active travel, physical activity, and socio-demographic characteristics with environmental attributes. The results from this study reveal complex associations between these different layers. Density of cycling routes was consistently associated with higher levels of physical activity captured via moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), prevalence of active travel, and total activity space exposure. Nevertheless, population density, greenspace, and land-use mix revealed varying associations across different activity behaviors including MVPA, number of steps, and prevalence of active travel. The results from this study not only reassert the complexity of person-environment relationships, but also highlight the potential impacts of measurement and analytical methods on the study results. The novel combination of participatory mapping and accelerometer data together with activity space analysis provided new analytical insights which we discuss in this paper. This study concludes by reporting its observations and envisioning future research directions

Urban green space and mental well-being of Aotearoa New Zealand adolescents : A path analysis

Background Growing evidence shows the positive influence of neighbourhood green space on mental well-being among adults through multiple health behaviours, but similar studies are lacking for adolescents. Methods Data were drawn from the 2019 wave of the Youth2000 survey series in Aotearoa, New Zealand with secondary school students (aged 10-19 years) from the city of Tamaki Makaurau, Auckland. Emotional well-being was measured with the World Health Organization-5 Well-being Index, and depressive symptoms were assessed using the Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale-short form. Neighbourhood green space was assessed using three different measures: percentage of green space, Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the distance to nearest green space from place of residence. Exposure areas of these measures were calculated using Euclidean buffers of 100m, 300m, 800m and 1600m around participants’ meshblock residential addresses. Three mediating (physical activity, social cohesion, sleep) and ten control variables (in adjusted models) were included in path analysis to test the direct and indirect relationships between green space and adolescent mental well-being. Results In unadjusted models, percentage of green space had a negative relationship with emotional well-being, and inconsistent effects of NDVI were detected in different buffers. Minor indirect effects of physical activity and sleep were also found. Depressive symptoms and emotional well-being were more strongly related to other individual and neighbourhood factors (e.g., neighbourhood deprivation). After adjusting for control variables, no significant associations of green space with adolescent depressive symptoms and emotional well-being were identified. Conclusions Urban neighbourhood green space does not appear to be a dominant factor contributing to adolescent mental well-being through physical activity, social cohesion and sleep. Appropriate individual and environmental control variables are needed to take into consideration in future studies that explore the green space-mental well-being relationships in adolescents

Visualising Combined Time Use Patterns of Children's Activities and Their Association with Weight Status and Neighbourhood Context.

Compositional data techniques are an emerging method in physical activity research. These techniques account for the complexities of, and interrelationships between, behaviours that occur throughout a day (e.g., physical activity, sitting, and sleep). The field of health geography research is also developing rapidly. Novel spatial techniques and data visualisation approaches are increasingly being recognised for their utility in understanding health from a socio-ecological perspective. Linking compositional data approaches with geospatial datasets can yield insights into the role of environments in promoting or hindering the health implications of the daily time-use composition of behaviours. The 7-day behaviour data used in this study were derived from accelerometer data for 882 Auckland school children and linked to weight status and neighbourhood deprivation. We developed novel geospatial visualisation techniques to explore activity composition over a day and generated new insights into links between environments and child health behaviours and outcomes. Visualisation strategies that integrate compositional activities, time of day, weight status, and neighbourhood deprivation information were devised. They include a ringmap overview, small-multiple ringmaps, and individual and aggregated time⁻activity diagrams. Simultaneous visualisation of geospatial and compositional behaviour data can be useful for triangulating data from diverse disciplines, making sense of complex issues, and for effective knowledge translation

Measuring area-level disadvantage in Australia : Development of a locally sensitive indicator

Background In Australia, the Socio-Economic Indexes for Areas (SEIFA), which includes the Index of Relative Socioeconomic Disadvantage (IRSD), captures the socioeconomic characteristics of areas. Because SEIFA rankings are relative to the country or state, the decile categorisations may not reflect an area’s socioeconomic standing relative to areas nearby. Aims The aim of the research was to explore whether IRSD rankings could be re-ranked to become locally sensitive. Data and methods Using existing SEIFA data to redistribute the membership of current decile IRSD groups, we tested three methods to re-rank all SA1 areas relative to the nearest areas capped at: (1) the nearest 99 neighbours, (2) a population threshold of 50,000 (3) a distance threshold of 10 km. Results The reclassification of SEIFA IRSD deciles was largest (up to 8 decile points of change) when comparing the nearest neighbour and population threshold local methods to current state-based rankings. Moreover, compared to using current national and state SEIFA IRSD rankings, the use of local rankings resulted in more evenly distributed deciles between cities, regional, and remote areas. Conclusions Because SEIFA IRSD rankings are used to allocate resources and health services, we encourage the combined use of a state and local ranking to refine areas considered the most disadvantaged

Associations between Children's Physical Activity and Neighborhood Environments Using GIS: A Secondary Analysis from a Systematic Scoping Review.

Regular participation in physical activity is essential for children's physical, mental, and cognitive health. Neighborhood environments may be especially important for children who are more likely to spend time in the environment proximal to home. This article provides an update of evidence for associations between children's physical activity behaviors and objectively assessed environmental characteristics derived using geographical information system (GIS)-based approaches. A systematic scoping review yielded 36 relevant articles of varying study quality. Most studies were conducted in the USA. Findings highlight the need for neighborhoods that are well connected, have higher population densities, and have a variety of destinations in the proximal neighborhood to support children's physical activity behaviors. A shorter distance to school and safe traffic environments were significant factors in supporting children's active travel behaviors. Areas for improvement in the field include the consideration of neighborhood self-selection bias, including more diverse population groups, ground-truthing GIS databases, utilising data-driven approaches to derive environmental indices, and improving the temporal alignment of GIS datasets with behavioral outcomes

Associations between Children's Physical Activity and Neighborhood Environments Using GIS: A Secondary Analysis from a Systematic Scoping Review.

Regular participation in physical activity is essential for children's physical, mental, and cognitive health. Neighborhood environments may be especially important for children who are more likely to spend time in the environment proximal to home. This article provides an update of evidence for associations between children's physical activity behaviors and objectively assessed environmental characteristics derived using geographical information system (GIS)-based approaches. A systematic scoping review yielded 36 relevant articles of varying study quality. Most studies were conducted in the USA. Findings highlight the need for neighborhoods that are well connected, have higher population densities, and have a variety of destinations in the proximal neighborhood to support children's physical activity behaviors. A shorter distance to school and safe traffic environments were significant factors in supporting children's active travel behaviors. Areas for improvement in the field include the consideration of neighborhood self-selection bias, including more diverse population groups, ground-truthing GIS databases, utilising data-driven approaches to derive environmental indices, and improving the temporal alignment of GIS datasets with behavioral outcomes