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Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses

Background: Environmental health is a growing area of knowledge, continually increasing and updating the body of evidence linking the environment to human health. Aim: This study summarizes the epidemiological evidence on environmental risk factors from meta-analyses through an umbrella review. Meth...

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Autores principales: Rojas-Rueda, David, Morales-Zamora, Emily, Alsufyani, Wael Abdullah, Herbst, Christopher H., AlBalawi, Salem M., Alsukait, Reem, Alomran, Mashael
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830944/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33467516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020704
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author Rojas-Rueda, David
Morales-Zamora, Emily
Alsufyani, Wael Abdullah
Herbst, Christopher H.
AlBalawi, Salem M.
Alsukait, Reem
Alomran, Mashael
author_facet Rojas-Rueda, David
Morales-Zamora, Emily
Alsufyani, Wael Abdullah
Herbst, Christopher H.
AlBalawi, Salem M.
Alsukait, Reem
Alomran, Mashael
author_sort Rojas-Rueda, David
collection PubMed
description Background: Environmental health is a growing area of knowledge, continually increasing and updating the body of evidence linking the environment to human health. Aim: This study summarizes the epidemiological evidence on environmental risk factors from meta-analyses through an umbrella review. Methods: An umbrella review was conducted on meta-analyses of cohort, case-control, case-crossover, and time-series studies that evaluated the associations between environmental risk factors and health outcomes defined as incidence, prevalence, and mortality. The specific search strategy was designed in PubMed using free text and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms related to risk factors, environment, health outcomes, observational studies, and meta-analysis. The search was limited to English, Spanish, and French published articles and studies on humans. The search was conducted on September 20, 2020. Risk factors were defined as any attribute, characteristic, or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or death. The environment was defined as the external elements and conditions that surround, influence, and affect a human organism or population’s life and development. The environment definition included the physical environment such as nature, built environment, or pollution, but not the social environment. We excluded occupational exposures, microorganisms, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), behavioral risk factors, and no-natural disasters. Results: This umbrella review found 197 associations among 69 environmental exposures and 83 diseases and death causes reported in 103 publications. The environmental factors found in this review were air pollution, environmental tobacco smoke, heavy metals, chemicals, ambient temperature, noise, radiation, and urban residential surroundings. Among these, we identified 65 environmental exposures defined as risk factors and 4 environmental protective factors. In terms of study design, 57 included cohort and/or case-control studies, and 46 included time-series and/or case-crossover studies. In terms of the study population, 21 included children, and the rest included adult population and both sexes. In this review, the largest body of evidence was found in air pollution (91 associations among 14 air pollution definitions and 34 diseases and mortality diagnoses), followed by environmental tobacco smoke with 24 associations. Chemicals (including pesticides) were the third larger group of environmental exposures found among the meta-analyses included, with 19 associations. Conclusion: Environmental exposures are an important health determinant. This review provides an overview of an evolving research area and should be used as a complementary tool to understand the connections between the environment and human health. The evidence presented by this review should help to design public health interventions and the implementation of health in all policies approach aiming to improve populational health.
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spelling pubmed-78309442021-01-26 Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses Rojas-Rueda, David Morales-Zamora, Emily Alsufyani, Wael Abdullah Herbst, Christopher H. AlBalawi, Salem M. Alsukait, Reem Alomran, Mashael Int J Environ Res Public Health Review Background: Environmental health is a growing area of knowledge, continually increasing and updating the body of evidence linking the environment to human health. Aim: This study summarizes the epidemiological evidence on environmental risk factors from meta-analyses through an umbrella review. Methods: An umbrella review was conducted on meta-analyses of cohort, case-control, case-crossover, and time-series studies that evaluated the associations between environmental risk factors and health outcomes defined as incidence, prevalence, and mortality. The specific search strategy was designed in PubMed using free text and Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) terms related to risk factors, environment, health outcomes, observational studies, and meta-analysis. The search was limited to English, Spanish, and French published articles and studies on humans. The search was conducted on September 20, 2020. Risk factors were defined as any attribute, characteristic, or exposure of an individual that increases the likelihood of developing a disease or death. The environment was defined as the external elements and conditions that surround, influence, and affect a human organism or population’s life and development. The environment definition included the physical environment such as nature, built environment, or pollution, but not the social environment. We excluded occupational exposures, microorganisms, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), behavioral risk factors, and no-natural disasters. Results: This umbrella review found 197 associations among 69 environmental exposures and 83 diseases and death causes reported in 103 publications. The environmental factors found in this review were air pollution, environmental tobacco smoke, heavy metals, chemicals, ambient temperature, noise, radiation, and urban residential surroundings. Among these, we identified 65 environmental exposures defined as risk factors and 4 environmental protective factors. In terms of study design, 57 included cohort and/or case-control studies, and 46 included time-series and/or case-crossover studies. In terms of the study population, 21 included children, and the rest included adult population and both sexes. In this review, the largest body of evidence was found in air pollution (91 associations among 14 air pollution definitions and 34 diseases and mortality diagnoses), followed by environmental tobacco smoke with 24 associations. Chemicals (including pesticides) were the third larger group of environmental exposures found among the meta-analyses included, with 19 associations. Conclusion: Environmental exposures are an important health determinant. This review provides an overview of an evolving research area and should be used as a complementary tool to understand the connections between the environment and human health. The evidence presented by this review should help to design public health interventions and the implementation of health in all policies approach aiming to improve populational health. MDPI 2021-01-15 2021-01 /pmc/articles/PMC7830944/ /pubmed/33467516 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020704 Text en © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Rojas-Rueda, David
Morales-Zamora, Emily
Alsufyani, Wael Abdullah
Herbst, Christopher H.
AlBalawi, Salem M.
Alsukait, Reem
Alomran, Mashael
Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title_full Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title_fullStr Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title_full_unstemmed Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title_short Environmental Risk Factors and Health: An Umbrella Review of Meta-Analyses
title_sort environmental risk factors and health: an umbrella review of meta-analyses
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830944/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33467516
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020704
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