Urbanisation and health in China.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Gong P
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3733467 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:ObjectivesThis study investigated the association between urbanisation and self-rated health of older adults in China, particularly how different dimensions, rate and level of urbanisation are related to older people's health. Additionally, it examined the moderating effect of education on the association between each of the four dimensions of urbanisation and older people's health.DesignThe study uses a cross-sectional survey design.ParticipantsThis study analysed 236?030 individuals (aged 60-79 years) nested within 267 prefecture-level cities from 2005 China's 1% population sample survey.Outcome measuresSelf-rated health was the outcome variable. Four groups of predictors assessed prefectures' level and rate of urbanisation: land-use conversion, economic growth, population concentration and health services. Multilevel logistic regression was used to examine the association between self-rated health and the level and rate of urbanisation, after adjusting for individual-level covariates. Multiplicative interactions explored variations by education.ResultsThe odd of reporting fair or poor health was negatively associated with the level and rate of population concentration (OR 0.93,95%CI 0.87 to 0.99 and 0.74,95%CI 0.59 to 0.93, respectively) and positively associated with the level of health services (OR 1.12, 95%?CI 1.06 to 1.19). Land-use conversion, economic growth and health service improvements (the forms of rate of urbanisation) were not significantly associated with self-rated health. Education had a moderating effect on the association between urbanisation and self-rated health.ConclusionsOlder people living in more densely populated areas and areas undergoing rapid population concentration were less likely to report fair or poor health. This result supports healthy migration and 'salmon bias' hypotheses. No urban health penalty was observed for the older adults in China; therefore, the following pathways linking urbanisation to health are unclear: lifestyle changes, environmental pollution and cultivated land reduction.
| S-EPMC6597632 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Complex urbanisation dynamics, on the one hand, create a high demand for animal products, and on the other hand put enormous pressure on arable land with negative consequences for animal feed production. To explore the impact of accelerated urbanisation on dairy cattle health in urban farming systems, 151 farmers from different parts of the Greater Bengaluru metropolitan area in India were individually interviewed on aspects addressing cattle management and cattle health. In addition, 97 samples of forages from the shores of 10 different lakes, and vegetable leftovers used in cattle feeding were collected for nutritional analysis. Along with the use of cultivated forages, crop residues, and concentrate feed, 47% and 77% of the farmers occasionally or frequently used lake fodder and food leftovers, respectively. Nutritionally, lake fodder corresponded to high-quality pasture vegetation, but 43% of the samples contained toxic heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium, chromium, and lead above official critical threshold levels. Therefore, lake fodder may affect cows' health if consumed regularly; however, heavy metal concentrations varied between lakes (P < 0.05), but not between fodder types (P > 0.05). Although 60% of the interviewed farmers believed that their cows were in good health, logit model applications revealed that insufficient drinking water supply and the use of lake fodder negatively impacted cattle health (P < 0.05). While it remains unknown if regular feeding of lake fodder results in heavy metal accumulation in animal products, farmers and farm advisors must address this and other urbanization-related challenges to protect cattle health.
| S-EPMC10556117 | biostudies-literature
Project description:ObjectiveTo explore the association between urbanicity and hyperuricaemia (HUA) and whether urbanicity is an independent risk factor for HUA in Chinese adults.DesignData analysis from a cross-sectional survey.Setting and participants8579 subjects aged 18 years or older were enrolled in the study from the 2009 wave of the China Health and Nutrition Survey to analyse the association between urbanicity and HUA. We divided them into three categories according to urbanisation index (low, medium and highly urbanised groups).Main outcome measuresHUA was defined as serum uric acid ≥7 mg/dL in men and ≥6 mg/dL in women.ResultsThe prevalence of HUA in low, medium and highly urbanised groups was 12.2%, 14.6% and 19.8%, respectively. The independent factors influencing serum uric acid included age, gender, hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, drinking, obesity and community-level urbanisation index (β=0.016, p<0.001). The risk of HUA in the highly urbanised group was significantly higher than that of the low urbanised group (OR 1.771, 95% CI 1.545 to 2.029, p<0.001), even after adjusting for other covariates (OR 1.661, 95% CI 1.246 to 2.212, p=0.001). In a subgroup analysis, we found that age, gender, comorbidity (such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity and chronic kidney disease) and physical activity affected the association between urbanisation and the risk of HUA.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that living in highly urbanised areas is linked with higher risk of HUA independent of cardiometabolic and health-related behavioural risk factors, which have been shown to increase along with urbanisation.
| S-EPMC7949434 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BACKGROUND:Little attention has been paid to how the association between urbanisation and abdominal adiposity changes over the course of economic development in low-income and middle-income countries. METHODS:Data came from the China Health and Nutrition Survey waves 1993-2011 (seven waves). A mixed linear model was used to investigate the association between community-level urbanisation with waist-to-height ratio (WHtR; an indicator of abdominal adiposity). We incorporated interaction terms between urbanisation and study waves to understand how the association changed over time. The analyses were stratified by age (children vs adults). RESULTS:Adult WHtR was positively associated with urbanisation in earlier waves but became inversely associated over time. More specifically, a 1 SD increase in the urbanisation index was associated with higher WHtR by 0.002 and 0.005 in waves 1993 and 1997, while it was associated with lower WHtR by 0.001 in 2011. Among child participants, the increase in WHtR over time was predominantly observed in more urbanised communities. CONCLUSION:Our study suggests a shift in adult abdominal adiposity from more urbanised communities to less urbanised communities over a time of rapid economic development in China. Children living in more urbanised communities had higher increase in abdominal obesity with urbanisation over time relative to children living in less urbanised communities.
| S-EPMC5948158 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Urbanisation is known to result in 'urban stream syndrome', which poses a huge threat to the river health. Birds, which are an important part of the river ecosystem, are sensitive to environmental changes in the basin. The ratio of the impervious surface area is a macroscopic indicator of urbanisation intensity in river basins. In this study, we combined the results of a year-round field survey of seven river wetlands around Chaohu Lake (China) with satellite remote sensing image data from the same period. The species richness at sections of the lake entrance was higher than in the middle sections of the river, and the Shannon-Wiener index during autumn was higher than that during winter. The waterbird diversity index declined exponentially with increases in the intensity of urbanisation. The changes in the land use patterns around river wetlands associated with urbanisation resulted in the loss of food resources and habitats. Therefore, the intensity of urbanisation was an important driving factor that leads to changes in the bird community structure of river wetlands, so it had a significant impact on the diversity of river wetland birds in all four seasons combined with a variety of influencing factors. Our research could be a guide for urban landscape planning and bird diversity protection. For example, the results suggested that it is necessary to identify river wetlands as an important part of the urban ecosystem, reduced building area, increased vegetation coverage, and retained slope protection and river beach land.
| S-EPMC8868527 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Aims/hypothesisThe purpose of this study was to examine the association between urbanisation-related factors and diabetes prevalence in China.MethodsAnthropometry, fasting blood glucose (FBG) and community-level data were collected for 7,741 adults (18-90 years) across 217 communities and nine provinces in the 2009 China Health and Nutrition Survey to examine diabetes (FBG ≥7.0 mmol/l or doctor diagnosis). Sex-stratified multilevel models, clustered at the community and province levels and controlling for individual-level age and household income were used to examine the association between diabetes and: (1) a multicomponent urbanisation measure reflecting overall modernisation and (2) 12 separate components of urbanisation (e.g., population density, employment, markets, infrastructure and social factors).ResultsPrevalent diabetes was higher in more-urbanised (men 12%; women 9%) vs less-urbanised (men 6%; women 5%) areas. In sex-stratified multilevel models adjusting for residential community and province, age and household income, there was a twofold higher diabetes prevalence in urban vs rural areas (men OR 2.02, 95% CI 1.47, 2.78; women, OR 1.94, 95% CI 1.35, 2.79). All urbanisation components were positively associated with diabetes, with variation across components (e.g. men, economic and income diversity, OR 1.42, 95% CI 1.20, 1.66; women, transportation infrastructure, OR 1.18, 95% CI 1.06, 1.32). Community-level variation in diabetes was comparatively greater for women (intraclass correlation [ICC] 0.03-0.05) vs men (ICC ≤0.01); province-level variation was greater for men (men 0.03-0.04; women 0.02).Conclusions/interpretationDiabetes prevention and treatment efforts are needed particularly in urbanised areas of China. Community economic factors, modern markets, communications and transportation infrastructure might present opportunities for such efforts.
| S-EPMC3483108 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Fatty acids are essential to macroinvertebrate growth and reproduction and can indicate food web structure and nutritional quality of basal resources. However, broad-scale examinations of how catchment land cover and associated stressors affect the proportions of fatty acids (FAs) in stream food webs are few.Here, we: (1) examine relationships among proportions of FAs among benthic periphyton and macroinvertebrate collector/gatherers, shredders, and predators; and (2) test if relationships between periphytic and macroinvertebrate FAs were altered due to the intensity of urban development in catchments.Proportions of the ?20-C eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA 20:5?3), arachidonic acid (ARA 20:4?6), and docosahexaenoic acid (22:6?3) indicated collector/gatherers had a diet richer in periphyton than in shredders, which had significantly lower proportions of these FAs. Collector/gatherers were in turn likely to be high-quality sources of ?3 and ? 20-C FAs for predators, which also had significantly greater EPA and ARA proportions than those in shredders. Linoleic (18:2?6) and ?-linolenic acid (18:3?3) comprised the greatest proportions of FAs in shredders, which suggested a diet dominated by leaf litter and associated hyphomycetes.As catchment urbanisation increased, proportions of total ?3 FAs and EPA in periphyton were significantly greater. This pattern also was seen through macroinvertebrate consumers and predators, given that proportions of these FAs in macroinvertebrates also were significantly correlated with factors associated with catchment urbanisation. The significant increase in total ?3 FAs and EPA proportions within shredders indicated that periphyton growth, and their FAs, increased on leaf litter, probably due to greater nutrient concentrations associated with catchment urbanisation. Proportions of total ?6 FAs in biota were not significantly correlated with factors associated with urban development, which could indicate that they were of sufficient abundance for consumers regardless of urban intensity or possible changes in their sources.Our study provides an informative first step that identified notable differences in proportions of FAs among macroinvertebrates in urban streams and an increase in proportions of total ?3 FAs and EPA in periphyton, consumers, and predators as catchment urbanisation increases. Identifying how FA relationships within food webs change in response to catchment alterations and stressors could inform land use and management decisions by linking environmental changes to measures important to ecosystem outcomes.
| S-EPMC6707523 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Urbanisation is considered as one of the most critical and widespread threats to coastal marine ecosystems. The aim of this study was to compare the density, percentage cover, thickness of clumps, condition index and size-frequency distribution of Mytilus galloprovincialis between urban and non-urban shores, at nested spatial scales, in the Northern Portuguese coast. M. galloprovincialis was selected as model because it is economically and ecologically relevant. Moreover, the relationship between mussel size and the other variables (i.e. density, percentage cover, thickness and condition index) were investigated. Mussels on urban shores showed a smaller density and a greater frequency of larger individuals. A significant negative correlation between mussel length with density and with thickness of clumps was also found. Our results seem to indicate that recruitment has declined on urban shores and, as a result, intraspecific competition is also smaller, leading to more resources being available for a fewer individuals which can reach larger sizes. As mussel beds support a great biodiversity of invertebrates and provide many ecosystem services, urbanisation may have indirect effects on communities associated with mussels. Understanding the vulnerability of mussel beds to urbanisation could inform management.
| S-EPMC7209287 | biostudies-literature
Project description:BackgroundHabitat loss is one of the principal causes of the current pollinator decline. With agricultural intensification, increasing urbanisation is among the main drivers of habitat loss. Consequently studies focusing on pollinator community structure along urbanisation gradients have increased in recent years. However, few studies have investigated how urbanisation affects plant-pollinator interaction networks. Here we assessed modifications of plant-pollinator interactions along an urbanisation gradient based on the study of their morphological relationships.Methodology/principal findingsAlong an urbanisation gradient comprising four types of landscape contexts (semi-natural, agricultural, suburban, urban), we set up experimental plant communities containing two plant functional groups differing in their morphological traits ("open flowers" and "tubular flowers"). Insect visitations on these communities were recorded to build plant-pollinator networks. A total of 17 857 interactions were recorded between experimental plant communities and flower-visitors. The number of interactions performed by flower-visitors was significantly lower in urban landscape context than in semi-natural and agricultural ones. In particular, insects such as Syrphidae and solitary bees that mostly visited the open flower functional group were significantly impacted by urbanisation, which was not the case for bumblebees. Urbanisation also impacted the generalism of flower-visitors and we detected higher interaction evenness in urban landscape context than in agricultural and suburban ones. Finally, in urban context, these modifications lowered the potential reproductive success of the open flowers functional group.Conclusions/significanceOur findings show that open flower plant species and their specific flower-visitors are especially sensitive to increasing urbanisation. These results provide new clues to improve conservation measures within urbanised areas in favour of specialist flower-visitors. To complete this functional approach, studies using networks resolved to the species level along urbanised gradients would be required.
| S-EPMC3661593 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Pollen allergies have been on the rise in cities, where anthropogenic disturbances, warmer climate and introduced species are shaping novel urban ecosystems. Yet, the allergenic potential of these urban ecosystems, in particular spontaneous vegetation outside parks and gardens, remains poorly known. We quantified the allergenic properties of 56 dry grasslands along a double gradient of urbanisation and plant invasion in Berlin (Germany). 30% of grassland species were classified as allergenic, most of them being natives. Urbanisation was associated with an increase in abundance and diversity of pollen allergens, mainly driven by an increase in allergenic non-native plants. While not inherently more allergenic than native plants, the pool of non-natives contributed a larger biochemical diversity of allergens and flowered later than natives, creating a broader potential spectrum of allergy. Managing novel risks to urban public health will involve not only targeted action on allergenic non-natives, but also policies at the habitat scale favouring plant community assembly of a diverse, low-allergenicity vegetation. Similar approaches could be easily replicated in other cities to provide a broad quantification and mapping of urban allergy risks and drivers.
| S-EPMC9481851 | biostudies-literature