Environmentally related gender health risks: findings from citizen science cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Public engagement in the research of environmental epidemiological problems is becoming an important measure to empower citizens to identify the local environmental and health problems and to explain different environmental exposures affect estimates for males and females. This HORIZON2020 CitieS-Health Kaunas Pilot study examines the relationship between urban built and social environment, health behaviors, and health in men and women. Methods This cross-sectional study included 1086 18–74-year-old participants residing in 11 districts of Kaunas city, Lithuania. Using GIS, we measured traffic flow, noise, NO2, PM2.5, PM10, and greenness NDVI for the participants’ home addresses, determined participants’ perceptions of environmental quality, linked this information with personal sociodemographic data, and used multivariate logistic regression to assess the associations with health issues (physician-diagnosed chronic disease and self-rated general health) in men and women. Results Men and women similar rated the quality of the neighborhood environment, except for air pollution and satisfaction with the public transport in the district. The traffic-related health associations were stronger for women than for men. The prevalence of poor health increased with the increasing age of men and women, yet no significant differences between gender health risks were found in the total sample. Perceived air pollution, irregular visits to green space, and chronic diseases were consistently associated with poor health risks in men and women, yet part-time jobs and low income had a higher impact on women’s poor health. Conclusions Quality of the built neighborhood, air pollution, irregular visits to the green space, and chronic disease had a joint effect on the magnitude of the prevalence of poor health in men and women. Our results suggest that decreasing air pollution and improving the urban built neighborhood supporting citizens’ physical activity in green spaces, might reduce health risks for all.

Improving Women's Health in the 21st Century: Current Challenges, Medical Advancements and Future Prospects

“…Consequently, it is essential that stakeholders, including policymakers and healthcare professionals, promote regulations that take into account air and water quality, food safety, climate change, and other impacting variables as essential components of safeguarding women's health. In addition, education concerning environmental health measures can help lower exposure to toxins, ultimately producing a healthier living environment [29].…”

Toolkit for conducting citizen science activities in environmental epidemiology

“…The tools included in the Toolkit presented in this paper were mostly developed and used as part of the activities in the five pilot studies of the CitieS-Health project in Barcelona (Spain), Amsterdam (Netherlands), Lucca (Italy), Ljubljana (Slovenia), and Kaunas (Lithuania). This paper deals with the methodological description of the toolkit creation and described some use cases in real-life applications of the CitieS-Health project, while the specific activities carried out in the individual pilot studies, the results obtained and the lessons learned are given elsewhere (Grazuleviciene et al, 2020a;Grazuleviciene et al, 2020b;Kocman et al, 2020;Grazuleviciene et al, 2021a;Grazuleviciene et al, 2021b;Grazuleviciene et al, 2022;Gignac et al, 2022a;Gignac et al, 2022b;De Marchi et al, 2022). Substantial elements of this work have been reported in deliverables from the CitieS-Health project, and reused for the purpose of this paper, in particular D2.1 (Kocman et al, 2019), D5.2 (Balestrini et al, 2019) and D5.3 (Errandonea et al, 2022).…”

More than the SRY: The Non-Coding Landscape of the Y Chromosome and Its Importance in Human Disease

“…Contributing factors to these environmentally based differences include environmental pollution, climate change and employment requirements. Overall, women are more sensitive to environmental pollution and climate change, while men are more likely to receive workplace injuries and chemical or biological exposures [13][14][15]. Additionally, men are more likely to smoke and drink, which has contributed to their higher rates of cancer throughout history [16].…”