February 19 | 2018

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Impacts of Bicycle Infrastructure in Mid-Sized Cities (IBIMS): protocol for a natural experiment study in three Canadian cities

Meghan Winters, Michael Branion-Calles, Suzanne Therrien, Daniel Fuller, Lise Gauvin, David G T Whitehurst, and Trisalyn Nelson

BMJ Open. 2018; 8(1): e019130. Published online 2018 Jan 21. doi:  10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019130  PMCID: PMC5781157

Abstract

Introduction

Bicycling is promoted as a transportation and population health strategy globally. Yet bicycling has low uptake in North America (1%–2% of trips) compared with European bicycling cities (15%–40% of trips) and shows marked sex and age trends. Safety concerns due to collisions with motor vehicles are primary barriers.

To attract the broader population to bicycling, many cities are making investments in bicycle infrastructure. These interventions hold promise for improving population health given the potential for increased physical activity and improved safety, but such outcomes have been largely unstudied. In 2016, the City of Victoria, Canada, committed to build a connected network of infrastructure that separates bicycles from motor vehicles, designed to attract people of ‘all ages and abilities’ to bicycling.

This natural experiment study examines the impacts of the City of Victoria’s investment in a bicycle network on active travel and safety outcomes. The specific objectives are to (1) estimate changes in active travel, perceived safety and bicycle safety incidents; (2) analyse spatial inequities in access to bicycle infrastructure and safety incidents; and (3) assess health-related economic benefits.

February 12 | 2018

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Effect of air quality alerts on human health: a regression discontinuity analysis in Toronto, Canada

Hong Chen, PhD, Qiongsi Li, MMath, Jay S Kaufman, PhD, Jun Wang, MSc, Ray Copes, MD, Yushan Su, PhD, Tarik Benmarhnia, PhD

The Lancet Planetary Health, Volume 2, No. 1, e19–e26, January 2018  DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(17)30185-7

Summary

Background

Ambient air pollution is a major health risk globally. To reduce adverse health effects on days when air pollution is high, government agencies worldwide have implemented air quality alert programmes. Despite their widespread use, little is known about whether these programmes produce any observable public-health benefits. We assessed the effectiveness of such programmes using a quasi-experimental approach.

Methods

We assembled a population-based cohort comprising all individuals who resided in the city of Toronto (Ontario, Canada) from 2003 to 2012 (about 2·6 million people). We ascertained seven health outcomes known to be affected by short-term elevation of air pollution, using provincial health administrative databases. These health outcomes were cardiovascular-related mortality, respiratory-related mortality, and hospital admissions or emergency-department visits for acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). We applied a regression discontinuity design to assess the effectiveness of an intervention (ie, the air quality alert programme). To quantify the effect of the air quality alert programme, we estimated for each outcome both the absolute rate difference and the rate ratio attributable to programme eligibility (by intention-to-treat analysis) and the alerts themselves (by two-stage regression approach), respectively.

Findings

Between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2012, on average between three and 27 daily cardiovascular or respiratory events were reported in Toronto (depending on the outcome). Alert announcements reduced asthma-related emergency-department visits by 4·73 cases per 1 000 000 people per day (95% CI 0·55–9·38), or in relative terms by 25% (95% CI 1–47). Programme eligibility also led to 2·05 (95% CI 0·07–4·00) fewer daily emergency-department visits for asthma. We did not detect a significant reduction in any other health outcome as a result of alert announcements or programme eligibility. However, a non-significant trend was noted towards decreased asthma-related and COPD-related admissions.

Interpretation

In this population-based cohort, the air quality alert programme was related to some reductions in respiratory morbidity, but not any other health outcome examined. This finding suggests that issuing air quality alerts alone has a limited effect on public health and that implementing enforced public actions to reduce air pollution on high pollution days could be warranted. Together with accumulating evidence of substantial burden from long-term air pollution exposure, this study underscores the need for further strengthening of global efforts that can lead to long-term improvement of overall air quality.

Funding

Public Health Ontario, Canadian Institutes for Health Research.

February 5 | 2018

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Evaluating street view exposure measures of visible green space for health research.

Larkin A, Hystad P.

J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol. 2018 Jan 19. doi: 10.1038/s41370-018-0017-1. [Epub ahead of print]

Abstract

Urban green space, or natural environments, are associated with multiple physical and mental health outcomes. Several proposed pathways of action for these benefits (e.g., stress reduction and attention restoration) require visual perception of green space; however, existing green space exposure measures commonly used in epidemiological studies do not capture street-scale exposures. We downloaded 254 Google Street View (GSV) panorama images from Portland, Oregon and calculated percent of green in each image, called Green View Index (GVI). For these locations we also calculated satellite-based normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), % tree cover, % green space, % street tree buffering, distance to parks, and several neighborhood socio-economic variables. Correlations between the GVI and other green space measures were low (-0.02 to 0.50), suggesting GSV-based measures captured unique information about green space exposures. We further developed a GVI:NDVI ratio, which was associated with the amount of vertical green space in an image. The GVI and GVI:NDVI ratio were weakly related to neighborhood socioeconomic status and are therefore less susceptible to confounding in health studies compared to other green space measures. GSV measures captured unique characteristics of the green space environment and offer a new approach to examine green space and health associations in epidemiological research.