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

Abstract

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.

Urban Noise Exposure and Cardiometabolic Diseases: An Exploratory Cross-Sectional Study in Lisbon

“…Our study aimed to investigate a possible cross-sectional association between exposure to urban noise and the prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus, obesity and hypertension in the city of Lisbon. We found no association between the considered factors, unlike other studies where authors found an increased risk of cardiometabolic diseases in populations exposed to noise [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Greenspace and human health: An umbrella review

“… 26 Second, greenspace can mitigate environmental hazards, such as air pollution, noise, and air temperature, 5 which are well-documented environmental risk factors for a range of health outcomes. 57 , 58 , 59 Dzhambov and colleagues 60 carried out a scoping review of studies testing pathways linking greenspace to health and found that 43 studies explored the mediating role of air pollution, 11 explored the mediating role of noise, and 5 explored the mediating role of heat. Significant mediating effects were found in about half of these studies.…”

Molecular Interaction and Evolution of Jasmonate Signaling With Transport and Detoxification of Heavy Metals and Metalloids in Plants

“…For example, a slow poisoning by Cd or As exposure may lead to overall increases in mortality and a range of diseases (Clemens and Ma, 2016). Ingestion is one of the major routes for human exposure to hazardous minerals, while the food chain represents the primary source (Rojas-Rueda et al, 2021); therefore, we need to reduce the accumulation of the toxic minerals in the edible organs of plants.…”