Selected publications in January

How harmful is it to your health to live on a major road? Are info-mails from research institutes to stakeholders actually read? And: How must health policy be made so that plans for a healthier society actually reach where they need to? These are the questions addressed in recent BIPS publications.

Griebler, Ursula, Kien, Christina, De Santis, Karina Karolina, Stratil, Jan, Borchard, Annegret & Heise, Thomas. Dissemination of evidence by Cochrane Public Health Europe in German-speaking countries: An online stakeholder survey. International Journal of Public Health. 2022;67:1605265. https://doi.org/10.3389/ijph.2022.1605265

Summary: This paper addresses the interesting question "how often are infomails with short summaries of recent review publications from the Cochrane Institute actually read?" For this purpose, 15 email campaigns from the Institute were studied. On average, 26 percent of recipients opened the emails [10.9 - 39.3 percent]. So the infomails seem to be useful for stakeholders' daily work.

Nagrani, Rajini, Marron, Manuela, Bongaerts, Eva, Nawrot, Tim S., Ameloot, Marcel, de Hoogh, Kees, Vienneau, Danielle, Lequy, Emeline, Jacquemin, Benedicte, Günther, Kathrin, De Ruyter, Thaïs, Mehlig, Kirsten, Molnár, Dénes, Moreno, Luis A., Russo, Paola, Veidebaum, Toomas, Ahrens, Wolfgang, Buck, Christoph & on behalf of the IDEFICS and I.Family consortia. Association of urinary and ambient black carbon, and other ambient pollutants with risk of prediabetes and metabolic syndrome in children and adolescents. Environmental Pollution. 2023;317:120773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.120773

Summary: Air pollution causes numerous illnesses and deaths every year. Especially in countries in Southeast Asia. This study was able to show using a European sample: It is also an issue here in Europe. Children who live less than 250 meters from a main road not only have elevated concentrations of black carbon in their urine, but are also more likely to suffer from metabolic diseases.

Lobczowska, Karolina, Banik, Anna, Forberger, Sarah, Kaczmarek, Krzysztof, Kubiak, Thomas, Neumann-Podczaska, Agnieszka, Romaniuk, Piotr, Scheidmeir, Marie, Scheller, Daniel, Steinacker, Jürgen, Wendt, Janine, Bekker, Marleen P. M., Zeeb, Hajo & Luszczynska, Aleksandra. Social, economic, political, and geographical context that counts: Meta-review of implementation determinants for policies promoting healthy diet and physical activity. BMC Public Health. 2022;22:1055. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-022-13340-4

Summary: What factors need to be considered when promoting healthy diet and physical activity policies? This comprehensive meta-review sheds light on these very questions. The results show that social, cultural, economic, and political circumstances, in particular, need to be considered when someone is making plans to implement healthy eating and physical activity strategies. Of particular interest to policymakers, activists, and researchers.