Very little is currently known about air pollutants’ adverse effects on neurodegenerative diseases even though recent studies have linked particulate exposures to brain pathologies associated with Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. In the present study, we investigated long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and Parkinson’s disease.

Original Source

Exposure to ambient air pollution is suspected to cause cognitive effects, but a prospective cohort is needed to study exposure to air pollution at the home address and the incidence of dementia. The researchers aimed to assess the association between long-term exposure to traffic-related air pollution and dementia incidence in a major city in northern Sweden.

Original Source

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) describes the intermediate state between normal cognitive aging and dementia. Adverse effects of air pollution (AP) on cognitive functions have been proposed, but investigations of the simultaneous exposure to noise are scarce. The objective of the study was to analyze the cross-sectional associations of long-term exposure to AP and traffic noise with overall MCI, amnestic (aMCI) and non-amnestic (naMCI) MCI.

Original Source

Exposure to traffic noise has been associated with adverse effects on neuropsychological outcomes in children, but findings with regard to behavioral problems are inconsistent. The researchers investigated whether residential road traffic noise exposure is associated with behavioral problems in 7-year-old children.

Original Source

Wearable sensor technologies are essential to the realization of personalized medicine through continuously monitoring an individual’s state of health. Sampling human sweat, which is rich in physiological information, could enable non-invasive monitoring. Previously reported sweat-based and other non-invasive biosensors either can only monitor a single analyte at a time or lack on-site signal processing circuitry and sensor calibration mechanisms for accurate analysis of the physiological state.

Agriculture has undergone profound changes, and farmers face a wide variety of stressors. Our aim was to study the levels of anxiety and depression symptoms among Norwegian farmers compared with other occupational groups. Working participants in the HUNT3 Survey (The Nord-Trøndelag Health Study, 2006–2008), aged 19–66.9 years, were included in this cross-sectional study. We compared farmers (women, n = 317; men, n = 1,100) with HUNT3 participants working in other occupational groups (women, n = 13,429; men, n = 10,026), classified according to socioeconomic status.

Long-term exposure to fine particles (particulate matter ≤ 2.5 μm; PM2.5) has been consistently linked to heart and lung disease. Recently, there has been increased interest in examining the effects of air pollution on the nervous system, with evidence showing potentially harmful effects on neurodegeneration.

The researchers objective was to assess the potential impact of long-term PM2.5 exposure on event time, defined as time to first admission for dementia, Alzheimer’s (AD), or Parkinson’s (PD) diseases in an elderly population across the northeastern United States.