Navigating the Data Merge | September 20 | 26 | 28 |2017 | PRESENTATION NOW AVAILABLE

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9am – 10:30am pacific | 12 noon – 1:30pm eastern

DOWNLOAD THE ANNOTATED PRESENTATION SLIDES

Do you manage a cohort, health survey, or administrative health database? Please join us for an overview of our upcoming urban environmental exposure data release, and a discussion of logistics for receiving and merging our data with yours.

We will be giving the same overview on September 20th, 26th and 28th to accommodate as many of you as possible. Just choose the most convenient date!

Read the recently completed CANUE Health Data Holder Survey, identifying opportunities and issues for data merging.

AGENDA

Introduction of CANUE team

Overview of data sets
themes (air pollution, greenness,etc.)
format
documentation
conditions for use

Data delivery and merging
planned delivery dates
push and pull model
ad hoc requests

CANUE tool development
unique exposure combinations tool
temporal aggregation tool
spatial aggregation tool

Q/A and discussion

New Opportunities for Weather and Health Research | September 21 | 2017 | VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE

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VIDEOS NOW AVAILABLE

Environment Canada is currently working on the 2.5 km High Resolution Deterministic Prediction system (HRDPS), expected to become operational next year.

This webinar-style meeting will highlight some of the health databases that CANUE researchers typically use, and provide an overview of these new weather/climate datasets. The overall objective of the meeting is to explore the utility of HRDPS data sets for conducting health research, and identify which health databases might be of most interest, as a first step in working together to advance our research agendas.

AGENDA

Presentation: CANUE

Overview of cohorts/health databases and opportunities for weather/climate research

Presentation: Environment Canada

HRDPS model/outputs, reanalysis opportunities

Discussion

Priorities for data development/linkage

August 28 | 2017

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Outdoor Light at Night and Breast Cancer Incidence in the Nurses’ Health Study II

Peter James, Kimberly A. Bertrand,  Jaime E. Hart, Eva S. Schernhammer, Rulla M. Tamimi, and Francine Laden

Environmental Health Perspectives, August 2017, Volume 125 Issue 8, https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP935

BACKGROUND:

Animal and epidemiologic studies suggest that exposure to light at night (LAN) may disrupt circadian patterns and decrease nocturnal secretion of melatonin, which may disturb estrogen regulation, leading to increased breast cancer risk.

OBJECTIVES:

We examined the association between residential outdoor LAN and breast cancer incidence using data from the nationwide U.S.-based Nurses’ Health Study II cohort.

METHODS:

We followed 109,672 women from 1989 through 2013. Cumulative LAN exposure was estimated using time-varying satellite data for a composite of persistent nighttime illumination at ∼1 km2 scale for each residence during follow-up. Incident invasive breast cancer cases were confirmed by medical record review. We used Cox proportional hazard models to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs), adjusting for anthropometric, reproductive, lifestyle, and socioeconomic risk factors.

RESULTS:

Over 2,187,425 person-years, we identified 3,549 incident breast cancer cases. Based on a fully adjusted model, the estimated HR for incident breast cancer with an interquartile range (IQR) (31.6 nW/cm2/sr) increase in cumulative average outdoor LAN was 1.05 (95% CI: 1.00, 1.11). An association between LAN and breast cancer appeared to be limited to women who were premenopausal at the time of a case [HR=1.07 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.14) based on 1,973 cases vs. HR=1.00 (95% CI: 0.91, 1.09) based on 1,172 cases in postmenopausal women; p-interaction=0.08]. The LAN–breast cancer association was observed only in past and current smokers at the end of follow-up [HR=1.00 (95% CI: 0.94, 1.07) based on 2,215 cases in never smokers; HR=1.10 (95% CI: 1.01, 1.19) based on 1,034 cases in past smokers vs. HR=1.21 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.37) for 300 cases in current smokers; p-interaction=0.08].

CONCLUSIONS:

Although further work is required to confirm our results and to clarify potential mechanisms, our findings suggest that exposure to residential outdoor light at night may contribute to invasive breast cancer risk.

 

August 21 | 2017

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Residential greenness and birth outcomes: evaluating the influence of spatially correlated built-environment factors.

Hystad P1, Davies HW, Frank L, Van Loon J, Gehring U, Tamburic L, Brauer M. 

Environ Health Perspect. 2014 Oct;122(10):1095-102.

doi: 10.1289/ehp.1308049   Epub 2014 Jul 11.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

Half the world’s population lives in urban areas. It is therefore important to identify characteristics of the built environment that are beneficial to human health. Urban greenness has been associated with improvements in a diverse range of health conditions, including birth outcomes; however, few studies have attempted to distinguish potential effects of greenness from those of other spatially correlated exposures related to the built environment.

OBJECTIVES:

We aimed to investigate associations between residential greenness and birth outcomes and evaluate the influence of spatially correlated built environment factors on these associations.

METHODS:

We examined associations between residential greenness [measured using satellite-derived Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) within 100 m of study participants’ homes] and birth outcomes in a cohort of 64,705 singleton births (from 1999-2002) in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. We also evaluated associations after adjusting for spatially correlated built environmental factors that may influence birth outcomes, including exposure to air pollution and noise, neighborhood walkability, and distance to the nearest park.

RESULTS:

An interquartile increase in greenness (0.1 in residential NDVI) was associated with higher term birth weight (20.6 g; 95% CI: 16.5, 24.7) and decreases in the likelihood of small for gestational age, very preterm (< 30 weeks), and moderately preterm (30-36 weeks) birth. Associations were robust to adjustment for air pollution and noise exposures, neighborhood walkability, and park proximity.

CONCLUSIONS:

Increased residential greenness was associated with beneficial birth outcomes in this population-based cohort. These associations did not change after adjusting for other spatially correlated built environment factors, suggesting that alternative pathways (e.g., psychosocial and psychological mechanisms) may underlie associations between residential greenness and birth outcomes.

 

August 14 | 2017

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Within- and between-city contrasts in nitrogen dioxide and mortality in 10 Canadian cities; a subset of the Canadian Census Health and Environment Cohort (CanCHEC).

Crouse DL1, Peters PA2, Villeneuve PJ3, Proux MO4, Shin HH1, Goldberg MS5, Johnson M6, Wheeler AJ6, Allen RW7, Atari DO8, Jerrett M9, Brauer M10, Brook JR11, Cakmak S1, Burnett RT1. 

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2015 Sep-Oct;25(5):482-9. Epub 2015 Jan 21.

doi: 10.1038/jes.2014.89

 

Abstract:

The independent and joint effects of within- and between-city contrasts in air pollution on mortality have been investigated rarely. To examine the differential effects of between- versus within-city contrasts in pollution exposure, we used both ambient measurements and land use regression models to assess associations with mortality and exposure to nitrogen dioxide (NO2) among ~735,600 adults in 10 of the largest Canadian cities. We estimated exposure contrasts partitioned into within- and between-city contrasts, and the sum of these as overall exposures, for every year from 1984 to 2006. Residential histories allowed us to follow subjects annually during the study period. We calculated hazard ratios (HRs) adjusted for many personal and contextual variables. In fully-adjusted, random-effects models, we found positive associations between overall NO2 exposures and mortality from non-accidental causes (HR per 5 p.p.b.: 1.05; 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.03-1.07), cardiovascular disease (HR per 5 p.p.b.: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01-1.06), ischaemic heart disease (HR per 5 p.p.b.: 1.05; 95% CI: 1.02-1.08) and respiratory disease (HR per 5 p.p.b.: 1.04; 95% CI: 0.99-1.08), but not from cerebrovascular disease (HR per 5 p.p.b.: 1.01; 95% CI: 0.96-1.06). We found that most of these associations were determined by within-city contrasts, as opposed to by between-city contrasts in NO2. Our results suggest that variation in NO2 concentrations within a city may represent a more toxic mixture of pollution than variation between cities.

 

All About CANUE | September 12 | 2017 | PRESENTATION NOW AVAILABLE

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9am – 10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern

DOWNLOAD THE ANNOTATED PRESENTATION SLIDES

Join us for a quick CANUE tour! Find out how CANUE works, what we do, how we can help you advance environmental health research in Canada and abroad, and move evidence into policy and practice.

PRESENTED BY:

August 7 | 2017

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Spatial Transferability of a Microresidential Mobility Model in the Integrated Land Use, Transportation, and Environment Modeling System

Fatmi, M.R. and Habib, M.A. (2015)

Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board No. 2496, pp. 29-36

https://doi.org/10.3141/2494-04

Abstract

This paper presents the spatial transferability analysis of a microbehavioral model from the residential mobility component of the integrated land use, transportation, and environment (ILUTE) modeling system developed and implemented in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, Ontario, Canada. The study examined whether ILUTE could be spatially transferred with the current model components to a different geographic area: Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The residential mobility component within ILUTE is a continuous-time, hazard-based duration model, developed with retrospective survey data from the Residential Mobility Survey 2 in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. This study developed a similar continuous-time, hazard-based duration model for the residential mobility decisions of households in Halifax on the basis of retrospective survey data from a household mobility and travel survey. The model results suggested that households in Halifax and the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area exhibited profound differences in residential mobility decisions. Sociodemographic, dwelling, and neighborhood characteristics significantly affected residential mobility decisions in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. The effects of land use and accessibility measures were noteworthy for Halifax. For instance, home-to-work distances in Halifax affected the decision to move; however, such an effect could not be confirmed in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. Households’ first periods of residence after household formation in a residential location were shorter in Halifax than in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area. It was concluded that the direct transfer of micromodels from one spatial context to another could be difficult.