Dr Paul Villeneuve, Professor at Carleton University, and affiliate of The CHAIM Centre, has formed a research team specializing in Occupational and Environmental Health:
Susanna Abraham Cottagiri, who was working in Dr. Villeneuve lab until starting a PhD iJN Epidemiology at Queens University in September, has been studying links between urban greenness, parks, and depression. These analyses have been done using data from the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging (CLSA), and demonstrate that adults who live in greenness neighbourhoods have lower rates of depression, and improved life satisfaction. These findings were recently presented at the 2021 International Society of Environmental Epidemiology Conference (virtual) in August.
Justin Lang, Postdoctoral Student, School of Mathematics and Statistics, is researching associations between neighbourhood walkability and mortality in Canadian cities. This study uses data from 1.8 million Canadians who completed the long form census and were linked to national mortality data. Preliminary results suggest that those who live in the most walkable neighbourhoods have lower rates of cardiovascular disease mortality. The benefits neighbourhood walkability appear to be strongest among those of lower socioeconomic groups. These findings were also presented at the International Society of Environmental Epidemiology Conference (virtual) in August 2021.
Nick Dirienzo led an air pollution exposure study in 2020, based in Grenada, that examined changes in outdoor concentrations of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution, including how they were impacted by Saharan dust storms. While daily concentrations of PM2.5 concentration were low in Grenada (~ 4.5 µg/m3) these exposures double during Saharan dust storms. The findings from this were presented at the 2021 International Society of Exposure Science Conference (virtual) in August, and formed the basis of Nick Dirienzo’s MSc thesis in Health Sciences that he successfully defended in September 2021.
Brianna Frangione, 4th year undergraduate student in Health Sciences, summarized findings from studies of short-term meteorological changes on suicide and suicide attempts. Finding an increase in ambient temperature was positively associated with suicide outcomes. This systematic review and meta-analysis was recently accepted in Environmental Research for publication and will be available online in November 2021.