scholarly journals Indicators of Healthy Architecture—a Systematic Literature Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 97 (6) ◽  
pp. 899-911 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Rice ◽  
Mark Drane

AbstractThe design of the built environment plays an important role as a determinant of health. As a society, we are spending an increasing proportion of our time indoors and now spend over 80% of our life inside, so the design of buildings can greatly impact on human health. Accordingly, architecture health indices (AHIs) are used to evidence the effects on human health associated with the design of buildings. AHIs provide quantitative and empirical data upon which architects, clients, users and other stakeholders might monitor and evaluate the healthiness (or otherwise) of architectural design. A systematic literature review was conducted to reveal the current state of knowledge, reveal gaps, explore potential usage and highlight best practice in this area. Whilst there are a number of different health indicators for the built/urban environments more generally, the scope of this review is limited to the scale of a building and specifically those aspects within the remit of a professional architect. In order to examine the range and characteristics of AHIs currently in use, this review explored three electronic bibliographic databases from January 2008 to January 2019. A two-stage selection was undertaken and screening against eligibility criteria checklist carried out. From 15 included studies, 127 documents were identified, and these included 101 AHI. A sample of the most commonly used AHIs was then analysed at an item level. The review reveals that most AHIs are limited to measuring communicable diseases that directly affect physical health through e.g. air quality or water quality. There are very few indicators focusing on factors affecting mental and social health; given the increase in mental and social health problems, greater focus on AHIs related to these health issues should be included. Furthermore, the research reveals an absence of AHIs that address non-communicable diseases (NCDs). As the majority of all poor health outcomes globally are now related to NCDs, and many are associated with the design of the built environment, there is an urgent need to address this situation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 80 (Suppl 1) ◽  
pp. 1402.1-1402
Author(s):  
R. Pinheiro Torres ◽  
M. H. Fernandes Lourenco ◽  
A. Neto ◽  
F. Pimentel Dos Santos ◽  
I. Silva ◽  
...  

Background:Juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), one of the most common chronic diseases in children, can be classified in seven different categories according to its onset presentation. Concerns about pregnancy outcomes play a secondary role in disease approach. However, recent data showed an increased risk of pre-term birth in women with JIA instead the small patient samples analysed.Objectives:In this review, our aim is to describe the current available knowledge on JIA adverse, maternal and fetal, outcomes.Methods:A systematic literature review was conducted since January of 2000 until December 2020, by searching the PubMed and Embase bibliographic databases. The search was limited to articles in English language, presenting a comparator group (healthy individuals or patients without known auto-immune rheumatic diseases) and at least one clinical outcome of interest. Two independent reviewers screened the titles and abstracts followed by a full-text review to assess papers regarding their eligibility.Results:Ten observational studies out of 1560 references, fulfilled the inclusion criteria, of which, 9 were retrospective and 1 prospective. A total of 6.214 women with JIA (with 6.811 pregnancies) and 18.659.513 healthy controls (with 21.339.194 pregnancies) were included in this review.Concerning maternal outcomes, delivery by caesarian section (CS) was more frequent among JIA women (in 4 out of 6 studies). Pre-eclampsia was referred in 3 out of 6 studies and a higher risk of vaginal bleeding and placenta previa in one additional study. No study found an increased risk for gestational diabetes or hypertension in pregnant women with JIA.Regarding fetal outcomes, 8 studies revealed significantly increased of pre-term birth (only in first births in one study) but one study didn’t show any increased risk. Two studies showed a higher risk of small gestational age (SGA) and in another 2, increased risk for low birth weight (LBW). No evidence of increased risk of major congenital malformations.Conclusion:This systematic review suggests an increased risk for pre-eclampsia, preterm birth, delivery by CS, SGA and LBW, among pregnant women with JIA. Conclusions should be carefully interpreted, giving the heterogeneity of studied populations regarding demography, disease type, disease activity, and prescribed medication.Disclosure of Interests:None declared


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 328-328
Author(s):  
Simona Kwon ◽  
Deborah Min ◽  
Stella Chong

Abstract Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial and ethnic minority group in the United States, whose population is aging considerably. Previous studies indicate that social isolation and loneliness disproportionately affects older adults and predicts greater physical, mental, and cognitive decline. A systematic literature review using PRISMA guidelines was conducted to address this emerging need to understand the scope of research focused on social isolation and loneliness among the disparity population of older Asian Americans. Four interdisciplinary databases were searched: PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and AgeLine; search terms included variations on social isolation, loneliness, Asian Americans, and older adults. Articles were reviewed based on six eligibility criteria: (1) research topic relevance, (2) study participants aged >60 years, (3) Asian immigrants as main participants, (4) conducted in the United States, (5) published between 1995-2019, and (6) printed in the English language. The search yielded 799 articles across the four databases and 61 duplicate articles were removed. Abstracts were screened for the 738 remaining studies, 107 of which underwent full-text review. A total of 56 articles met the eligibility criteria. Synthesis of our review indicates that existing research focuses heavily on Chinese and Korean American immigrant communities, despite the heterogeneity of the diverse Asian American population. Studies were largely observational and employed community-based sampling. Critical literature gaps exist surrounding social isolation and loneliness in Asian American older adults, including the lack of studies on South Asian populations. Future studies should prioritize health promotion intervention research and focus on diverse understudied Asian subgroups.


2018 ◽  
Vol 34 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Clovis Wanzinack ◽  
Marcos Claudio Signorelli ◽  
Clóvis Reis

Abstract: Brazil currently has the highest absolute number of homicides in the world, which results from a complex range of factors. This study aimed at understanding the associations between socio-environmental determinants of health (SDH) and homicides in Brazil through a systematic literature review. The review followed PRISMA guidelines, selecting quantitative and qualitative studies published in Portuguese, English, and Spanish carried out between 2002 and 2017, available in the PubMed, MEDLINE, LILACS, SciELO and BVS-BIREME databases. Two trilingual reviewers tracked studies independently by basing on the eligibility criteria. We critically assessed the selected studies with the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) or the Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies, depending on the study design. We considered 60 studies and grouped their SDH into categories to develop a narrative synthesis about each SDH. These categories were: territory; race/ethnicity; gender; age; social inequalities and economic factors; development; education; work and employment; drugs and trafficking; other SDH. We found some SDH were more associated with homicides, such as being young, black, male, of low education level, and also people who lived in places of high social inequality, such as urban suburbs and agricultural frontiers. Unemployment and drug trafficking, as well as intersections between various SDH were also prominent. Education seems to be a protective factor for homicide. Despite the limited capacity of interpretation due to the high range of methodological approaches, this review shows the importance of considering SDH and their intersections when developing homicide prevention policies.


BMC Medicine ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Corina Schuster ◽  
Roger Hilfiker ◽  
Oliver Amft ◽  
Anne Scheidhauer ◽  
Brian Andrews ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-137
Author(s):  
Tsvetanka Georgieva-Trifonova ◽  
Kaloyan Zdravkov ◽  
Donika Valcheva

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the existing research on the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases by providing answers to a set of research questions resulting from a systematic literature review. Design/methodology/approach The present study consists of conducting a systematic literature review of research works related to the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases. A manual keyword search is performed in known academic databases. As a result, a total of 78 literature sources are identified as related to the topic and included in the review. From the selected literature sources, information is extracted, which is then summarized and analyzed according to previously defined research questions and finally reported. Besides, a framework is defined to classify literature sources found and collected as a result of the study. The main criteria, according to which the classification is performed, are the used semantic technology and the research problem for which semantic technologies are applied in bibliographic databases. The classification of the publications is verified by each author independently of others. Findings The conducted systematic scientific review establishes that the evolution of semantic technologies sets a period of increased interest in the researchers, as a result of which the advantages of using them for bibliographic descriptions are examined and practically confirmed. After defining semantic models for bibliographic descriptions and approaches to transform existing bibliographic data into their correspondence, the research interest is directed at their comparison, collation; enrichment to facilitate search and retrieval of useful information. Possible perspectives for future research are outlined, which mainly relate to the complete use of the created data sets and their transformation into knowledge repositories. Originality/value Despite the increasing importance of the semantic technologies in various areas, including the bibliographic databases, there is a lack of comprehensive literature review and classification of literature sources relevant to this topic. The detailed study proposed in the present paper supports introducing with the existing experience in the application of semantic technologies in bibliographic databases, as well as facilitates the discovery of trends and guidelines for future research.


2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 545-557
Author(s):  
Susanne M Maassen ◽  
Anne Marie J W Weggelaar Jansen ◽  
Gerard Brekelmans ◽  
Hester Vermeulen ◽  
Catharina J van Oostveen

Abstract Purpose Research shows that the professional healthcare working environment influences the quality of care, safety climate, productivity, and motivation, happiness, and health of staff. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to assess instruments that provide valid, reliable and succinct measures of health care professionals’ work environment (WE) in hospitals. Data sources Embase, Medline Ovid, Web of Science, Cochrane CENTRAL, CINAHL EBSCOhost and Google Scholar were systematically searched from inception through December 2018. Study selection Pre-defined eligibility criteria (written in English, original work-environment instrument for healthcare professionals and not a translation, describing psychometric properties as construct validity and reliability) were used to detect studies describing instruments developed to measure the working environment. Data extraction After screening 6397 titles and abstracts, we included 37 papers. Two reviewers independently assessed the 37 instruments on content and psychometric quality following the COSMIN guideline. Results of data synthesis Our paper analysis revealed a diversity of items measured. The items were mapped into 48 elements on aspects of the healthcare professional’s WE. Quality assessment also revealed a wide range of methodological flaws in all studies. Conclusions We found a large variety of instruments that measure the professional healthcare environment. Analysis uncovered content diversity and diverse methodological flaws in available instruments. Two succinct, interprofessional instruments scored best on psychometrical quality and are promising for the measurement of the working environment in hospitals. However, further psychometric validation and an evaluation of their content is recommended.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2042 (1) ◽  
pp. 012177
Author(s):  
K Theilig ◽  
M Vollmer ◽  
W Lang

Abstract Even though it is scientifically well known that there are various building emissions with harmful impacts on human health and the environment, existing evaluating approaches only refer to selected emissions and life cycle phases. Especially in today’s building sector harmful emissions are mainly evaluated in the use stage and the target is to minimize rather than avoid them. However, in order to avoid subsequent negative impacts, implementation strategies have to be developed and applied during early planning phases. This research presents an overview of relevant building emissions as well as a life cycle based approach to allocate these emissions and to show possibilities of influence towards zero emission buildings.


BMC Neurology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abril Oliva Ramirez ◽  
Alexander Keenan ◽  
Olivia Kalau ◽  
Evelyn Worthington ◽  
Lucas Cohen ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, demyelinating disease of the central nervous system that results in progressive and irreversible disability. Fatigue is one of the most common MS-related symptoms and is characterized by a persistent lack of energy that impairs daily functioning. The burden of MS-related fatigue is complex and multidimensional, and to our knowledge, no systematic literature review has been conducted on this subject. The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic literature review on the epidemiology and burden of fatigue in people with multiple sclerosis (pwMS). Methods Systematic searches were conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, and Evidence-Based Medicine Reviews to identify relevant studies of fatigue in pwMS. English-language records published from 2010 to January 2020 that met predefined eligibility criteria were included. We initially selected studies that reported quality of life (QoL) and economic outcomes according to categories of fatigue (e.g., fatigued vs non-fatigued). Studies assessing associations between economic outcomes and fatigue as a continuous measure were later included to supplement the available data. Results The search identified 8147 unique records, 54 of which met the inclusion criteria. Of these, 39 reported epidemiological outcomes, 11 reported QoL, and 9 reported economic outcomes. The supplementary screen for economic studies with fatigue as a continuous measure included an additional 20 records. Fatigue prevalence in pwMS ranged from 36.5 to 78.0%. MS-related fatigue was consistently associated with significantly lower QoL. Results on the economic impact of fatigue were heterogeneous, but most studies reported a significant association between presence or severity of fatigue and employment status, capacity to work, and sick leave. There was a gap in evidence regarding the direct costs of MS-related fatigue and the burden experienced by caregivers of pwMS. Conclusion Fatigue is a prevalent symptom in pwMS and is associated with considerable QoL and economic burden. There are gaps in the evidence related to the direct costs of MS-related fatigue and the burden of fatigue on caregivers. Addressing fatigue over the clinical course of the disease may improve health and economic outcomes for patients with MS.


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