Prioritizing Environmental Health Risks in the UAE

Willis, Henry H.; Gibson, Jacqueline MacDonald; Shih, Regina A.; Geschwind, Sandy A.; Olmstead, Sarah; Hu, Jianhui; Curtright, Aimee E.; Cecchine, Gary; Moore, Melinda

doi:10.1111/j.1539-6924.2010.01463.x

Cited by 62 publications

(44 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Finally, following a suggestion made by one of the reviewers, we have performed another robustness check, by using a testing procedure reported in Willis et al (2010) and predicted individual rationality at time 2 using just individual rationality at time 1 and group rationality as predictors (we controlled for age and gender as well). Although this statistical analysis does not address directly our two hypotheses, it allows us to compare the model fit for the simple model (procedure reported in Willis et al, 2010) and the model we reported in Table 4.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this statistical analysis does not address directly our two hypotheses, it allows us to compare the model fit for the simple model (procedure reported in Willis et al, 2010) and the model we reported in Table 4. In order to obtain the scores for the Akaike's Information Criterion (AIC) and the Schwarz's Bayesian Criterion (BIS) we have run these additional analyses using the mixed models procedure in SPSS.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Cognitive synergy in groups and group-to-individual transfer of decision-making competencies

et al. 2015

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In a field study (148 participants organized in 38 groups) we tested the effect of group synergy and one's position in relation to the collaborative zone of proximal development (CZPD) on the change of individual decision-making competencies. We used two parallel sets of decision tasks reported in previous research to test rationality and we evaluated individual decision-making competencies in the pre-group and post-group conditions as well as group rationality (as an emergent group level phenomenon). We used multilevel modeling to analyze the data and the results showed that members of synergetic groups had a higher cognitive gain as compared to members of non-synergetic groups, while highly rational members (members above the CZPD) had lower cognitive gains compared to less rational group members (members situated below the CZPD). These insights extend the literature on group-to-individual transfer of learning and have important practical implications as they show that group dynamics influence the development of individual decision-making competencies.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cognitive synergy in groups and group-to-individual transfer of decision-making competencies

et al. 2015

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“…As noted above, preliminary risk assessments by experts and stakeholder engagement sessions narrowed the list of candidates [7]. Tables 1 and 2 list the pollutants for each exposure route-health endpoint combination.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Then, we presented the preliminary risk assessment results at workshops involving government environment and health officials, faculty at local universities, international experts, local industries, and environmental groups. Participants were led through a systematic process, developed through previous research, to prioritize the pollutant-exposure route combinations for consideration [7]. Stakeholder engagement in the selection of risks to consider was essential because the results were intended to inform future UAE strategic planning [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deaths and Medical Visits Attributable to Environmental Pollution in the United Arab Emirates

et al. 2013

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BackgroundThis study estimates the potential health gains achievable in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with improved controls on environmental pollution. The UAE is an emerging economy in which population health risks have shifted rapidly from infectious diseases to chronic conditions observed in developed nations. The UAE government commissioned this work as part of an environmental health strategic planning project intended to address this shift in the nature of the country’s disease burden.Methods and FindingsWe assessed the burden of disease attributable to six environmental exposure routes outdoor air, indoor air, drinking water, coastal water, occupational environments, and climate change. For every exposure route, we integrated UAE environmental monitoring and public health data in a spatially resolved Monte Carlo simulation model to estimate the annual disease burden attributable to selected pollutants. The assessment included the entire UAE population (4.5 million for the year of analysis). The study found that outdoor air pollution was the leading contributor to mortality, with 651 attributable deaths (95% confidence interval [CI] 143–1,440), or 7.3% of all deaths. Indoor air pollution and occupational exposures were the second and third leading contributors to mortality, with 153 (95% CI 85–216) and 46 attributable deaths (95% CI 26–72), respectively. The leading contributor to health-care facility visits was drinking water pollution, to which 46,600 (95% CI 15,300–61,400) health-care facility visits were attributed (about 15% of the visits for all the diseases considered in this study). Major study limitations included (1) a lack of information needed to translate health-care facility visits to quality-adjusted-life-year estimates and (2) insufficient spatial coverage of environmental data.ConclusionsBased on international comparisons, the UAE’s environmental disease burden is low for all factors except outdoor air pollution. From a public health perspective, reducing pollutant emissions to outdoor air should be a high priority for the UAE’s environmental agencies.

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“…The first three components of this work are described elsewhere (Davidson et al 2011; Gibson 2011; Li et al 2010; MacDonald Gibson and Farah 2012; Willis et al 2010). …”

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confidence: 99%

Conducting Environmental Health Research in the Arabian Middle East: Lessons Learned and Opportunities

Yeatts

El-Sadig

Ali

et al. 2012

Environ Health Perspect

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Background: The Arabian Gulf nations are undergoing rapid economic development, leading to major shifts in both the traditional lifestyle and the environment. Although the pace of change is brisk, there is a dearth of environmental health research in this region.Objective: We describe challenges and successes of conducting an environmental epidemiologic study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf nation in the Middle East, with an inter-disciplinary team that includes in-country academic and government collaborators as well as U.S. academic collaborators.Discussion: We present several issues, including study and data collection design, exposure assessment, scheduling and time coordination, quality assurance and quality control, and institutional review board protocols. These topics are considered in a cultural context. Benefits of this research included building linkages among multinational, interdisciplinary team members, generating data for local environmental decision making, and developing local epidemiologic research capacity. The Middle Eastern culture of hospitality greatly benefited the project team.Conclusion: Cultural differences impact multiple aspects of epidemiologic research and should be respectfully addressed. Conducting international population-based environmental research poses many challenges; these challenges can be met successfully with careful planning, cultural knowledge, and flexibility. Lessons learned are applicable to interdisciplinary research all over the world. The research conducted will benefit the environmental and public health agencies of the UAE and provide the nation’s leadership with country-specific environmental health data that can be used to protect the public’s health in a rapidly changing environment.

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Prioritizing Environmental Health Risks in the UAE

Cited by 62 publications

References 9 publications

Cognitive synergy in groups and group-to-individual transfer of decision-making competencies

Cognitive synergy in groups and group-to-individual transfer of decision-making competencies

Deaths and Medical Visits Attributable to Environmental Pollution in the United Arab Emirates

Conducting Environmental Health Research in the Arabian Middle East: Lessons Learned and Opportunities

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