Evidence shows sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) consumption is a risk factor for obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in children. Investigating the influential profiles, which have been ...examined insufficiently, will help to inform the reduction of SSB consumption. The present research examines the current trend in SSB consumption and associated factors among children in China, in order to inform policy development.
Secondary data was extracted from China's Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS; 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2011), a repeated cross-sectional research, and a Chi-squared test was applied to compare SSB consumption in the last year, queried by social demographical, `environmental, behavioral, and parental factors. Multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression was employed to examine the trend and effects of the multiple factors.
A total of 6015 Chinese children aged 6-17 years were investigated. From 2004 to 2011, the percentage of SSB consumption in children increased from 72.6% to 90.3%. The prevalence in urban areas was higher than the prevalence in rural areas, higher in high schools than primary and middle schools, higher in east coast affluent provinces than other provinces, and higher in high-income households than low-income households. Other associated factors include children's fast food and salty snacks preference, level of physical activity, sedentariness, and parental education. The strongest association with SSB consumption in children was the mother's SSB consumption (adjusted odds ratio: 5.54, 95% CI: 3.17-9.67).
Children's SSB consumption has increased significantly in China, and is associated with socio-economic, demographic, level of physical activity, food preference, and parental factors. Future strategies aimed at reducing SSB consumption among children need to consider these factors.
Engaging communities in Early Warning Systems (EWSs) is crucial to save lives, reduce injuries, and protect the environment due to disaster events. Yet, community input is not always commonly sought ...in many disaster policy development and implementation processes. Following the major disaster event of 2004 that had large consequences for multiple countries, the concept of people-centred EWSs was promulgated to encourage Community Engagement (CE) in EWSs. Aceh, Indonesia was one of the regions most devastated by the 2004 event, and despite the progress that has been achieved in disaster risk management and prevention and preparedness including the EWS design and operation following this event, improving CE in the system remains an important challenge. This study investigates the opportunities and challenges for enhancing CE in the EWS in Aceh by exploring current social systems, governance arrangements, donor funded projects and community perspectives using in-depth interviews, document reviews, and focus group discussions. The findings identify that there is inadequate CE across all four elements of a people-centred EWS. To enhance such CE in the EWS, numerous opportunities were identified: improved recognition of community figures, promoting
adat
and sharia practices in enhancing community involvement; and utility of
meunasahs
and mosques as important physical places for engaging the community in the system. Despite these opportunities, various barriers were identified to improve CE including insufficient integration of CE in the formal EWS contingency plans or the existing EWS SOP; the erosion of
meuseraya
practices; inadequate funds to maintain CE programs; insufficient sustained integration of CE into government disaster policy processes; lack of community ownership of CE programs; and a fatalistic worldview of disasters. Various recommendations are provided to enhance CE in the EWS in Aceh. This is a critical requirement towards reducing harm for future hazard events.
The association between temperatures and risk of cardiovascular mortality has been recognized but the association drawn from previous meta-analysis was weak due to the lack of sufficient studies. ...This paper presented a review with updated reports in the literature about the risk of cardiovascular hospitalization in relation to different temperature exposures and examined the dose–response relationship of temperature-cardiovascular hospitalization by change in units of temperature, latitudes, and lag days. The pooled effect sizes were calculated for cold, heat, heatwave, and diurnal variation using random-effects meta-analysis, and the dose–response relationship of temperature-cardiovascular admission was modelled using random-effect meta-regression. The Cochrane Q-test and index of heterogeneity (I2) were used to evaluate heterogeneity, and Egger's test was used to evaluate publication bias. Sixty-four studies were included in meta-analysis. The pooled results suggest that for a change in temperature condition, the risk of cardiovascular hospitalization increased 2.8% (RR, 1.028; 95% CI, 1.021–1.035) for cold exposure, 2.2% (RR, 1.022; 95% CI, 1.006–1.039) for heatwave exposure, and 0.7% (RR, 1.007; 95% CI, 1.002–1.012) for an increase in diurnal temperature. However no association was observed for heat exposure. The significant dose–response relationship of temperature — cardiovascular admission was found with cold exposure and diurnal temperature. Increase in one-day lag caused a marginal reduction in risk of cardiovascular hospitalizations for cold exposure and diurnal variation, and increase in latitude was associated with a decrease in risk of cardiovascular hospitalizations for diurnal temperature only. There is a significant short-term effect of cold exposure, heatwave and diurnal variation on cardiovascular hospitalizations. Further research is needed to understand the temperature-cardiovascular relationship for different climate areas.
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•There are significant short-term effects of cold, heatwave to CDV hospitalization.•Similar association was observed for diurnal temperature variation.•There is an inconsistent effect of heat exposure on CDV hospitalizations.•Future studies need to focus on specific geographical and climate areas.
Pesticides are indispensable in agricultural production. They have been used by farmers to control weeds and insects, and their remarkable increases in agricultural products have been reported. The ...increase in the world's population in the 20th century could not have been possible without a parallel increase in food production. About one-third of agricultural products are produced depending on the application of pesticides. Without the use of pesticides, there would be a 78% loss of fruit production, a 54% loss of vegetable production, and a 32% loss of cereal production. Therefore, pesticides play a critical role in reducing diseases and increasing crop yields worldwide. Thus, it is essential to discuss the agricultural development process; the historical perspective, types and specific uses of pesticides; and pesticide behavior, its contamination, and adverse effects on the natural environment. The review study indicates that agricultural development has a long history in many places around the world. The history of pesticide use can be divided into three periods of time. Pesticides are classified by different classification terms such as chemical classes, functional groups, modes of action, and toxicity. Pesticides are used to kill pests and control weeds using chemical ingredients; hence, they can also be toxic to other organisms, including birds, fish, beneficial insects, and non-target plants, as well as air, water, soil, and crops. Moreover, pesticide contamination moves away from the target plants, resulting in environmental pollution. Such chemical residues impact human health through environmental and food contamination. In addition, climate change-related factors also impact on pesticide application and result in increased pesticide usage and pesticide pollution. Therefore, this review will provide the scientific information necessary for pesticide application and management in the future.
Among many options tackling the scalability issues of the current Internet routing architecture, the Locator/Identifier Separation Protocol (LISP) appears as a viable solution. LISP improves a ...network's scalability, flexibility, and traffic engineering, enabling mobility with limited overhead. As for any new technology, implementation and deployment are essential to gather and master the real benefits that it provides. In this article, we present the first complete open source implementation of the LISP control plane. Our implementation is deployed in the worldwide LISP Beta Network and the French LISP-Lab testbed, and includes the key standardized control plane features. Our control plane software is the companion of the existing OpenLISP dataplane implementation, allowing the deployment of a fully functional open source LISP network compatible with any implementation respecting the standards.
Imidacloprid (IMI) is a typical neonicotinoid with the largest usage in agricultural orchards in China. The long-term repeated use and the lack of proper protective measures may result in rural ...farmers and people living near orchards to be inevitably exposed to IMI. Excessive exposure may cause potential adverse effects on human health. To explore the characteristics of human exposure to IMI in urine, different groups of people, including pesticide applicators and their family members, and kindergarten children near IMI-applied orchards were investigated. The IMI and metabolite, 6-chloronicotinic acid (6-CNA), concentrations in urine were creatinine-adjusted to compensate for a possible dilution effect. Target analytes were detected in 100% of 1926 urine samples. The results showed that the IMI concentration in the 1-d urine from the rural residents significantly increased after a spraying event (p < 0.05) and reached the highest concentration (Geomean: 16.42 μg/g creatinine for IMI; 7.33 μg/g creatinine for 6-CNA) in the 2-d urine samples. The pesticide applicators of different genders had almost the same exposure environment (IMI Geomean of 13.25 μg/g creatinine for males and 14.71 μg/g creatinine for females) (p > 0.05). Females had higher exposure concentrations than that of males. People from different villages demonstrated diverse exposure levels with Geomean differences of 1.13–3.28 fold. For 3–6 years-old children, urinary concentrations from the rural group (Geomean: 3.73 μg/g creatinine for IMI; 3.95 μg/g creatinine for 6-CNA) were significantly higher than that of the urban group (Geomean: 1.13 μg/g creatinine for IMI; 0.88 μg/g creatinine for 6-CNA) (p = 0.00001), and the younger children tended to have higher exposure risk. Our findings showed that people in the Henan orchard areas were likely exposed to IMI to varying degrees. Further research on the health risk evaluation of IMI and controlling the exposure risks is needed.
•Imidacloprid and major metabolite 6-CNA was detected in 100% of urine samples.•Urinary levels of imidacloprid and 6-CNA increased markedly after spraying event.•Rural children have 3.30–4.49 folds higher imidacloprid exposure than urban ones.•The adolescent and elder have higher imidacloprid exposure.•People from 9 villages showed 1.13–3.28 folds of imidacloprid exposure difference.
More than 35 million people in coastal Bangladesh are vulnerable to increasing freshwater salinization. This will continue to affect more people and to a greater extent as climate change projections ...are realised in this area in the future. However the evidence for health effects of consuming high salinity water is limited. This research examined the association between drinking water salinity and blood pressure in young adults in coastal Bangladesh. We conducted a cross-sectional study during May-June 2014 in a rural coastal sub-district of Bangladesh. Data on blood pressure (BP) and salinity of potable water sources was collected from 253 participants aged 19–25 years. A linear regression method was used to examine the association between water salinity exposure categories and systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) level. Sixty five percent of the study population were exposed to highly saline drinking water above the Bangladesh standard (600 mg/L and above). Multivariable linear regression analyses identified that compared to the low water salinity exposure category (<600 mg/L), those in the high water salinity category (>600 mg/L), had statistically significantly higher SBP (B 3.46, 95% CI 0.75, 6.17; p = 0.01) and DBP (B 2.77, 95% CI 0.31, 5.24; p = 0.03). Our research shows that elevated salinity in drinking water is associated with higher BP in young coastal populations. Blood pressure is an important risk factor of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. Given the extent of salinization of freshwater in many low-lying countries including in Bangladesh, and the likely exacerbation related to climate change-induced sea level rise, implementation of preventative strategies through dietary interventions along with promotion of low saline drinking water must be a priority in these settings.
•Freshwater salinization will affect more people and to a greater extent as climate projections are realised in low-lying regions of the world.•The evidence for health effects of consuming high salinity drinking water is limited.•Consuming saline drinking water above 600 mg/L led to an approximate 3 mmHg rise in both SBP and DBP in young Bangladeshi coastal populations.•Appropriate interventions shall immediately be promoted to reduce blood pressure related health risks in the long term.
Consumption of high saline drinking water above the acceptable range i.e. 600 mg/L in rural coastal Bangladesh led to an approximate 3 mmHg rise in both SBP and DBP in young populations.
Air pollution has become an alarming issue in Vietnam recently; however, there was only one study so far on the effects of ambient air pollution on population health. Our study aimed to investigate ...the short-term effects of air pollutants including PM10, NO2, SO2, and O3 on respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations in Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), the largest city in Vietnam. Data on hospitalization from the two largest hospitals in HCMC and daily records of PM10, NO2, SO2, O3 and meteorological data were collected from February 2004 to December 2007. A time-series regression analysis with distributed lag model was applied for data analysis. Changes in levels of NO2 and PM10 were strongly associated with hospital admissions for both respiratory and cardiovascular diseases (CVD); whereas levels of SO2 were only moderately associated with respiratory and CVD hospital admissions and O3 concentration was not associated with any of them. For a 10μg/m3 increase of each air pollutant, the risk of respiratory admissions increased from 0.7% to 8% while the risk of CVD admissions increased from 0.5% to 4%. Females were found to be more sensitive than males to exposure to air pollutants in regard to respiratory diseases. In regard to CVD, females (RR, 1.04, 95% CI, 1.01–1.07) had a slightly higher risk of admissions than males (RR, 1.03, 95% CI, 1–1.06) to exposure to NO2. In contrast, males (RR, 1.007, 95%CI, 1–1.01) had a higher risk of admission than females (RR, 1.004, 95%CI, 1.001–1.007) to exposure to PM10. People in the age group of 5–65year-olds had a slightly higher risk of admissions caused by air pollutants than the elderly (65+years old) except for a significant effect of PM10 on the risk of cardiovascular admissions was found for the elderly only.
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•Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was vulnerable to high level of air pollution.•NO2 and PM10 were significantly associated with cardiorespiratory hospitalizations.•SO2 and O3 had inconsistent effects on cardiorespiratory hospitalizations.•Elderly people were more sensitive to cardiovascular risk of air pollution than others.•A prevention program that reduces health risk caused by air pollution is recommended.
Climate change-related extreme events such as floods have and will continue to present a great challenge to disaster risk management. There is a pressing need to develop a robust management strategy ...via enhancing the resiliency of the community, particularly in the context of complex urban environments, like Jakarta. Resilience is conceptualized within specific contexts and uniquely tailored to the targeted setting, yet research regarding the operational concept of a flood-resilient community in the context of Jakarta remains limited. This paper will elaborate this operational concept through understanding the desirable features and influential barriers of a flood-resilient community through the lenses of three main stakeholder groups: disaster risk reduction (DRR), climate change adaptation (CCA), and development. It will also discuss the ways in which the synergies that exist across these groups can be enhanced. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were applied in this study, and multiple sources of data were used. The findings indicate that these groups share common views regarding the importance of human aspects being central to resilience building efforts. We argue there is an urgent need to shift the flood resilience building paradigm towards building community resilience from the people and to apply a collaborative governance approach to facilitate effective partnership between the actors involved.
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