The IDIAPJGol studies the effects of pollution on health

On June 5, World Environment Day is celebrated and from IDIAPJGol we want to take advantage of this commemoration to highlight our latest studies that link pollution and people's health.

 On the one hand, the following scientific article was recently published: de Bont J, Díaz Y, de Castro M, Cirach M, Basagaña X, Nieuwenhuijsen M, Duarte-Salles T, Vrijheid M. Ambient air pollution and the development of overweight and obesity in children: a large longitudinal study. Int J Obes (Lond). 2021 Feb; doi:10.1038/s41366-021-00783-9. Epub 2021 Feb 24. PMID:33627774. The objective of this research, which was carried out in collaboration with ISGlogal, was to check whether pollution played a role in the development of obesity in children and, furthermore, whether the socioeconomic level modified this possible association.

A longitudinal study was carried out with 416,955 boys and girls from Catalonia between 2 and 5 years old using data from SIDIAP since 2006 2016. It has been found that greater exposure to NO2, PM10 and PMcoarse is associated with a 2-3% increase in the risk of developing overweight and obesity. This association is stronger in more disadvantaged areas at a socioeconomic level.

On the other hand, the Real World Epidemiology research group is also doing a cohort study using SIDIAP data. The objective of this study is to determine the association between green spaces and the risk of developing anxiety or depression in adults in Catalonia.

Finally, the same research group is also leading other projects focused on the study of the effects of air pollution on health problems, such as the risk of respiratory problems (such as asthma or chronic bronchitis) in children, or breast cancer in women.