Cluster pattern analysis of environmental stressors and quantifying their impact on all-cause mortality in Belgium

Environmental stress represents an important burden on health and leads to a considerable number of diseases, hospitalisations, and excess mortality. Our study encompasses a representative sample size drawn from the Belgian population in 2016 (n = 11.26 million, with a focus on n = 11.15 million individuals). The analysis is conducted at the geographical level of statistical sectors, comprising a total of n = 19,794 sectors, with a subset of n = 18,681 sectors considered in the investigation. We integrated multiple parameters at the finest spatial level and constructed three categories of envi... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Vandeninden, Bram
De Clercq, Eva M.
Devleesschauwer, Brecht
OTAVOVA, Martina
Bouland, Catherine
FAES, Christel
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
Verlag/Hrsg.: BMC
Schlagwörter: Spatial patterns / Clusters / Air pollutio / Land cover / Noise / Public health / Ecological regression
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26993831
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : http://hdl.handle.net/1942/42575

Environmental stress represents an important burden on health and leads to a considerable number of diseases, hospitalisations, and excess mortality. Our study encompasses a representative sample size drawn from the Belgian population in 2016 (n = 11.26 million, with a focus on n = 11.15 million individuals). The analysis is conducted at the geographical level of statistical sectors, comprising a total of n = 19,794 sectors, with a subset of n = 18,681 sectors considered in the investigation. We integrated multiple parameters at the finest spatial level and constructed three categories of environmental stress through clustering: air pollution, noise stress and stress related to specific land-use types. We observed identifiable patterns in the spatial distribution of stressors within each cluster category. We assessed the relationship between age-standardized all-cause mortality rates (ASMR) and environmental stressors. Our research found that especially very high air pollution values in areas where traffic is the dominant local component of air pollution (ASMR + 14,8%, 95% CI: 10,4 - 19,4%) and presence of industrial land (ASMR + 14,7%, 95% CI: 9,4 - 20,2%) in the neighbourhood are associated with an increased ASMR. Cumulative exposure to multiple sources of unfavourable environmental stress (simultaneously high air pollution, high noise, presence of industrial land or proximity of primary/secondary roads and lack of green space) is associated with an increase in ASMR (ASMR + 26,9%, 95% CI: 17,1 - 36,5%). ; Funding This study has been supported by a project grant (ELLIS project,https://www. brain-ellis.be/) from the Belgian Science Policy Ofce BELSPO (Grant no. B2/191/P3/ELLIS). Acknowledgements We wholeheartedly thank all the people and organisations that provided data that were used in this study (IRCEL-CELINE, STATBEL, CORINE LAND COVER, Omgving Vlaanderen, Leefmilieu Brussels, Geoportail Wallonie)