Environment

Associations of Urban Environment Features with Hypertension and Blood Pressure Across 230 Latin American Cities

Avila-Palencia, I
Rodriguez, D
Miranda, J
Moore, K
Gouveia, N
Moran, M
Caiaffa, W
Roux, AV Diez
2022
Features of the urban physical environment may be linked to the development of high blood pressure, a leading risk factor for global burden of disease. We examined associations of urban physical environment features with hypertension and blood pressure measures in adults across 230 Latin American cities. In this cross-sectional study we used health, social, and built environment data from the SALud URBana en América Latina (SALURBAL) project. The individual-level outcomes were hypertension and levels of systolic and diastolic blood pressure. The exposures were city and subcity built...

City-level Impact of Extreme Temperatures and Mortality in Latin America

Kephart, JL
Sánchez, BN
Moore, J
Schinasi, L
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Ju, Y
Rodriguez, D
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, W
Dronova, I
Arunachalam, S
Roux, AV Diez
2022

Climate change and urbanization are rapidly increasing human exposure to extreme ambient temperatures, yet few studies have examined temperature and mortality in Latin America. We conducted a nonlinear, distributed-lag, longitudinal analysis of daily ambient temperatures and mortality among 326 Latin American cities between 2002 and 2015. We observed 15,431,532 deaths among ≈2.9 billion person-years of risk. The excess death fraction of total deaths was 0.67% (95% confidence interval (CI) 0.58–0.74%) for heat-related deaths and 5.09% (95% CI 4.64–5.47%) for cold-related deaths. The...

Characterizing Determinants of Near-Road Ambient Air Quality for an Urban Intersection and a Freeway Site

Frey, HC
Grieshop, AP
Khlystov, A
Bang, JJ
Rouphail, N
Guinness, J
Rodriguez, D
Fuentes, M
Saha, P
Brantley, H
2022

Traffic emissions are an important source of urban air pollution, and exposure to traffic-related air pollution has been associated with various adverse health effects. However, exposure assessment is challenging because traffic-related air pollution is a complex mixture of many particulate and gaseous pollutants and is highly variable across locations and time. Developing accurate models of traffic-related air pollution for use in exposure assessment for epidemiological studies relies on understanding traffic activity and air flow at small spatial scales within cities. Dr. H. Christopher...

Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide Exposures in Latin American Cities

Kephart, JL
Gouveia, N
Rodríguez, D
Alfaro, T
Texcalac-Sangrador, JL
Miranda, J
Bilal, U
Roux, AV Diez
2022
Background and Aim: Ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) is a ubiquitous urban air pollutant emitted by fossil fuel combustion. Exposure to NO₂ is associated with respiratory disease and all-cause mortality. Health research on ambient NO₂ is sparse in Latin America, despite high urbanization and the high prevalence of NO₂-associated respiratory diseases in the region. This study aims to describe highly-granular population exposures to ambient NO₂ and urban characteristics associated with NO₂ exposure within 326 Latin American cities. Methods: We leveraged estimates of annual surface NO₂ at 1km²...

Modification of Temperature-Related Human Mortality by Area-Level Socioeconomic and Demographic Characteristics in Latin American Cities

Bakhtsiyarava, M
Schinasi, LH
Sánchez, BN
Dronova, I
Kephart, JL
Ju, Y
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, WT
O'Neill, MS
Yamada, G
Arunachalam, S
Roux, AV Diez
Rodriguez, D
2023

In Latin America, where climate change and rapid urbanization converge, non-optimal ambient temperatures contribute to...

Social Disparities in Flood Exposure and Associations with the Built Environment in 47,187 Urban Neighborhoods in Eight Latin American Countries

Kephart, JL
Bilal, U
Ferreira, A
Gouveia, N
Rodriguez, DA
Barbieri, IS
Miranda, J
Roux, AV Diez
2023
BACKGROUND AND AIM: Climate change is expected to greatly increase population exposure to flooding and related health impacts, particularly in urban areas of the Global South. We aimed to examine within-city social disparities in exposure to flooding within 326 Latin American cities and associated features of the neighborhood environment. METHOD: We used a high spatial resolution dataset of historical flood events from 2000-2018 to describe flood exposure at the neighborhood level for all cities with 100,000+ residents in eight Latin American countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia,...

Greenness and Excess Deaths from Heat in 323 Latin American Cities: Do Associations Vary According to Climate Zone or Green Space Configuration?

Schinasi, LH
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Sánchez, BN
Kephart, JL
Ju, Y
Arunachalam, S
Gouveia, N
Caiaffa, WT
O'Neill, MS
Dronova, I
Roux, AV Diez
Rodriguez, D
2023
Green vegetation may protect against heat-related death by improving thermal comfort. Few studies have investigated associations of green vegetation with heat-related mortality in Latin America or whether associations are modified by the spatial configuration of green vegetation. We used data from 323 Latin American cities and meta-regression models to estimate associations between city-level greenness, quantified using population-weighted normalized difference vegetation index values and modeled as three-level categorical terms, and excess deaths from heat (heat excess death fractions [heat...

Recent Greening May Curb Urban Warming in Latin American Cities of Better Economic Conditions

Ju, Y
Dronova, I
Rodriguez, D
Bakhtsiyarava, M
Farah, I
2023
Rising temperatures have profound impacts on the well-being of urban residents. However, factors explaining the temporal variability of urban thermal environment, or urban warming, remain insufficiently understood, especially in the Global South. Addressing this gap, we studied the relationship between city-level economic conditions and urban warming, and how urban green space mediated this relationship, focusing on 359 major Latin American cities between 2001 and 2022. While effect sizes varied by economic and temperature measures used, we found that better economic conditions were...

Ambient Nitrogen Dioxide in 47 187 Neighbourhoods Across 326 cities in Eight Latin American Countries: Population Exposures and Associations with Urban Features

Kephart, JL
Gouveia, N
Rodriguez, DA
Indvik, K
Alfaro, T
Texcalac-Sangrador, JL
Miranda, J
Usama, B
Roux, AV Diez
2023

Health research on ambient nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is sparse in Latin America, despite the high prevalence of NO2-associated respiratory diseases in the region. This study describes within-city distributions of ambient NO2 concentrations at high spatial resolution and urban characteristics associated with neighbourhood ambient NO2 in 326 Latin American cities. We aggregated estimates of annual surface NO2 at 1 km2 spatial...

Associations Between Urban Greenspace and Depressive Symptoms in Mexico's Cities Using Different Greenspace Metrics

Bakhtsiyarava, M
Ju, Y
Moran, M
Rodriguez, DA
Dronova, I
Delclòs-Alió, X
Moore, K
Castillo-Riquelme, M
Anza-Ramirez, C
2024

Greenspace has been shown to be positively associated with mental wellbeing, but studies from the global South have been scarce. We advance the understanding of the relationship between greenspace and depressive symptoms by using multiple clearly defined metrics describing neighborhood greenness and urban parks in an understudied region with rapid urban growth.