Environmental change and children's health

In this project, an international collaboration led by ISGlobal and IDIAP focusing on data from Catalonia, we used de-identified patient data from young people to describe the impact of changing environmental conditions on the determinants of health in children. We analysed the relocations of patients to areas of different socioeconomic deprivation levels or different air pollution levels.

The association between exposure to air pollution and health complications in children has been well-established. However, there is limited research exploring how sociodemographic and environmental characteristics may influence this association when young people relocate.

We connected Patient Data and Environmental data, and used this to describe baseline characteristics of groups who relocated to higher or lower levels of air pollution and socio-economic deprivation.

In total, this study included the de-identified records of 237,216 children who moved to a different physical environment. These relocations were associated with changes in the prevalence of obesity, exposure to green spaces and differing proportions of non-Spanish nationalities.

Overall, Children exposed to environments with greater socioeconomic deprivation, greater urbanisation, higher levels of air pollution and more non-Spanish nationalities moved to areas of greater or similar deprivation and air pollution levels. Further research is necessary to understand underlying intersectionality and consequent health impacts for equitable health planning against degrading environmental conditions.

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