International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Volume 22, Issue 8

Location-based games offer innovative approaches for health promotion among older adults, but their effectiveness depends on understanding complex contextual factors beyond technological design. In our study, we aimed to adapt a location-based game i...

Multisystemic Therapy (MST) is an intensive family and community-based treatment targeting antisocial behaviours in adolescents. Treatment fidelity has proved crucial for successful implementation of the MST intervention, with prior research demonstr...

There are a range of factors that influence alcohol use in pregnancy and create risk of fetal harm. However, limited research has articulated the multilevel nature of these influences and their entanglement. The purpose of this narrative review is to...

Introduction: Globally, approximately 53 million children under the age of five live with some form of developmental disability. Exposure to heavy metals has been identified in the literature as a contributing factor in the etiology of neurodevelopme...

Despite its positive impact on household income, parental labour migration negatively affects left-behind children (LBC) and their caregivers. Studies in various settings have reported different impacts on LBC, but less is known about the consequence...

Suicide is a leading cause of death among construction workers, particularly younger and lower-skilled employees. Barriers such as stigma, low mental health literacy, and traditional masculine norms hinder help-seeking in this male-dominated sector....

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic exposed major structural deficiencies in global health governance, including stark inequities in vaccine access, intervention timing, and mortality outcomes. While economic resources played a role, the influence of g...

With persistent racial inequities, cultural adaptations of health programs can promote equitable maternal mental health. Despite the intersecting identities of Black mothers with preterm birth combined with racial discrimination, previous mental heal...

Older adults with a refugee life experience have a disproportionate burden of mental health problems compared to non-refugee aging populations. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is a promising approach to identify the challenges and stren...

The COVID-19 pandemic and related public health and hospital restrictions directly influenced Canadian perinatal healthcare. This study aimed to evaluate predictors of pandemic-related pregnancy and postpartum stress in Canada. A sample of 398 women...

Infectious disease modeling and forecasting tools are crucial for outbreak management. However, variability exists in the capacity of state and local health departments to effectively utilize these tools, influenced by factors such as infrastructure,...

Background: Despite significant advancements in HIV prevention, Africa continues to bear a disproportionately high burden of new infections. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) has demonstrated over 90% efficacy in preventing HIV acquisition when taken c...

Chemical hazards in food present a significant health risk. The objective of our review is to understand health risks associated with chemical contaminants in products of animal origin (POAO) in Cambodia, where there is no known published study. We f...

Public libraries serve as vital community hubs that foster engagement, empowerment, and education, particularly for vulnerable populations, including refugee children and families. This study examines how Oklahoma’s public libraries contribute...

Aging parents caring for adult children with disabilities or other care needs face significant challenges and health-related issues over extended periods. The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of aging parents with caregiving responsib...

This study examines the impact of aircraft noise on annoyance and sleep disturbances among residents near Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, from 2019 to 2023. It aims to assess the specific effects of aircraft noise exposure on sleep...

The importance of physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep behaviour in adolescents with type 1 diabetes (T1D) has been explored in isolation. However, adolescents experience health benefits when these behaviours are balanced appropriately t...

Equine-assisted services (EAS) are used for civilian and military trauma survivors to reduce depression and posttraumatic stress symptoms. While early scientific evidence supports the benefits of EAS, the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying thes...

The COVID-19 pandemic impacted mental health. This cross-sectional study analyzed the perception of concern related to the pandemic in Jundiaí-SP, June 2020. Participants consisted of residents of households selected by probability sampling an...

Immigrants represent 20.8% of Norway’s population, with 22.2% aged 50+. This study aimed to assess oral health-related behaviors and perceived oral health in relation to sociodemographic factors among elderly immigrants aged 50+. Methods: 174 p...

Sub-Saharan Africa bears the heaviest burden of HIV/AIDS. Kenya alone has an estimated 1.4 million people living with HIV. Therefore, this study determined HIV testing prevalence and associated factors among men aged 15–54 years in Kenya. The s...

The existing literature suggests that exposure to Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) can increase Papillary Thyroid Cancer (PTC) risk by interfering with thyroid hormone signaling, leading to hormonal imbalances that promote carcinogenesis. I...

Out-of-pocket expenditure (OOPE) comprises 62% of national health expenditure in India. This heavy reliance on direct payments has engendered economic vulnerability and catastrophic financial pressures (typically defined as out-of-pocket spending exc...

Introduction: There is a lack of knowledge regarding the acute glycemic and blood pressure responses to resistance exercises that involve different amounts of muscle mass. Objective: To analyze the acute effects of single- and multi-joint resistance...

(1) Background: Psychological distress causes increased smoking frequency. Thus, financial distress (FD), a type of psychological distress, during the COVID-19 pandemic recession is possibly associated with increased smoking frequency. We studied the...

Soldiers are likely to suffer an injury and require rehabilitation at some stage of their career. Load carriage, whilst a fundamental requirement, is also a source of injury risk. To optimize the rehabilitation of soldiers and prepare them for a full...

Social media promotion of harmful products (e.g., combustible tobacco) poses a public health threat. However, strategies that amplify exposure to and engagement with such content remain understudied. This study aims to characterize strategies boostin...

Online psychotherapy for patients with suicidal behavior was considered inappropriate by the Brazilian Federal Psychology Council prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Due to the need for physical distancing, this restriction was temporarily suspended. Thi...

Background: Outdoor and household PM_2.5 are established risk factors for chronic disease and early mortality. In China, high levels of outdoor PM_2.5 and solid fuel use for cooking and heating, especially in winter, pose large health risks to the coun...

Background/Objectives: There is still debate about students’ health in medical schools. The aim of this study was to assess the proportion of chronic diseases among medical students and analyze their predictors. Methods: We performed a secondar...

Mental health conditions affect many young people in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), where stigma is high and access to care is limited. Digital tools accessible on basic mobile phones offer a scalable way to promote mental health, but evidence on their ef...

Certain environmental exposures are associated with COVID-19 incidence and mortality. To determine whether environmental context is associated with other COVID-19 experiences, we used data from the nationally representative Tufts Equity in Health, We...

Introduction: Healthcare service utilisation for type 2 diabetes (T2D) is suboptimal among people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds. Synthesised evidence on drivers influencing their healthcare access and utilisation acros...

The internalisation of sociocultural ideals and beliefs about weight and shape has long been recognised as an important predictor of disordered eating. However, thin-ideal internalisation and weight bias internalisation (WBI) are generally examined s...

Stroke rehabilitation requires comprehensive assessments aligned with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) biopsychosocial model. Linking assessment tools to the ICF helps integrate this approach by identifyin...

This study aimed to describe the risk factors for locomotive syndrome (LS) in Brazilian oldest old individuals. Study subjects were older adults aged ≥80 years who were cognitively healthy, independent for activities of daily living and had been f...

Background: Understanding how food processing impacts type 2 diabetes (T2DM) control is essential for disease management. This study aimed to assess the association between ultra-processed food (UPF) consumption, as defined by the NOVA classification...

This study investigated how county- and state-level socioeconomic factors influence racial differences in placement stability outcomes for children in foster care. Using a sample drawn from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (...

The use of untreated livestock manure in urban agriculture sustains soil fertility but risks disseminating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in resource-limited settings. This study characterized antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB) prevalence across man...

Tuberculosis (TB) remains a critical public health issue in Johannesburg, South Africa, driven by a complex interplay of individual, social, and structural factors. This study assessed the syndemic relationship between these determinants to understan...

Adolescents have lower rates of breastfeeding (BF) compared to older mothers. BF self-efficacy (SE) has been identified as an important factor influencing BF outcomes. An innovative BF program for young women was co-designed and implemented, which in...

Preterm birth is a leading cause of perinatal morbidity and mortality and is particularly prevalent among socially disadvantaged female populations. This quantitative, cross-sectional study aimed to explore the prevalence of preterm birth in three se...

Public safety personnel (PSP), including correctional workers, firefighters, paramedics, police, and public safety communicators, are at increased risk for posttraumatic stress injury, yet face barriers in receiving timely support. Mobile health (mHe...

Agricultural workers in the United States (U.S.) are exposed to occupational heat stress, increasing their risk of adverse kidney outcomes. The aim of this integrative review was to explore the relationship between occupational heat stress and kidney...

Due to rapid urbanization over the past five decades, there has been growing interest in the role of biodiversity in supporting human well-being. While previous research highlights the role of landscape biodiversity in psychological restoration, the...

It is critical to inform the public of the threat heat poses to health and provide actionable guidance on mitigating this risk before, during, and after heat events. To help educate the public during heat events, Health Canada works closely with Envi...

Infants are at a higher risk of heat-related morbidity and mortality compared to children and adults. However, it remains unclear whether this vulnerability stems from immature thermoregulatory mechanisms or simply from their dependence on caregivers...

This study aimed to analyze the perception of women who were victims of rape about the care provided at a teaching hospital located in the northeast of Brazil. A qualitative study was conducted with seven women. The interviews took place in a trustwo...

This paper focuses on clarifying the relationship between noise exposure and the prevalence of highly sleep-disturbed (HSD) people due to road traffic and railway noise in Japan. The authors accumulated 22 datasets, which were provided by the Socio-A...

Using data on the children of the respondents who participated in Wave IV (2008) and Wave V (2016–2018) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, we estimate the effect of long-term exposure to ozone (O₃) and particulate...