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Can wastewater-based epidemiology be used to evaluate the health impact of temperature? – An exploratory study in an Australian population

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Research, March 2017
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Title
Can wastewater-based epidemiology be used to evaluate the health impact of temperature? – An exploratory study in an Australian population
Published in
Environmental Research, March 2017
DOI 10.1016/j.envres.2017.03.023
Pubmed ID
Authors

Dung Phung, Jochen Mueller, Foon Yin Lai, Jake O’Brien, Nhung Dang, Lidia Morawska, Phong K. Thai

Abstract

Ambient temperature is known to have impact on population health but assessing its impact by the traditional cohort approach is resource intensive. Wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) could be an alternative for the traditional approach. This study was to provide the first evaluation to see if WBE can be used to assess the impact of temperature exposure to a population in South East Queensland, Australia using selected pharmaceuticals and personal care products (PPCPs) as biomarkers. Daily loads of eight PPCPs in wastewater collected from a wastewater treatment plant were measured from February 2011 to June 2012. Corresponding daily weather data were obtained from the closest weather station. Missing data of PPCPs were handled using the multiple imputation (MI) method, then we used a one-way between-groups analysis of variance to examine the seasonal effect on daily variation of PPCPs by seasons. Finally, an MI estimate was performed to evaluate the continuous relationship between daily average temperature and each multiply-imputed PPCP using time-series regression analysis. The results indicated that an increase of 1°C in average temperature associated with decrease at 1.3g/d (95% CI: -2.2 to (-0.4), p<0.05) for atenolol, increase at 36.5g/d (95% CI: 25.2-47.8, p<0.01) for acesulfame, and increase at 0.8g/d (95% CI: 0.02-1.55, p=0.05) for naproxen. No significant association was observed between temperature and the remaining PPCPs, comprising: caffeine, carbamazepine, codeine, hydrochlorothiazide, and salicylic acid. The findings suggested that consumption of sweetened drinks, risk of worsening cardiovascular conditions and pains are associated with variation in ambient temperature. WBE can thus be used as a complementary method to traditional cohort studies in epidemiological evaluation of the association between environmental factors and health outcomes provided that specific biomarkers of such health outcomes can be identified.

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Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 64 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 64 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Researcher 9 14%
Student > Master 8 13%
Student > Bachelor 7 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 9%
Student > Doctoral Student 3 5%
Other 8 13%
Unknown 23 36%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 7 11%
Environmental Science 7 11%
Engineering 5 8%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 3 5%
Chemistry 2 3%
Other 10 16%
Unknown 30 47%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 1. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 28 March 2017.
All research outputs
#17,289,387
of 25,382,440 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Research
#5,761
of 7,953 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#206,859
of 322,842 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Research
#69
of 104 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,382,440 research outputs across all sources so far. This one is in the 21st percentile – i.e., 21% of other outputs scored the same or lower than it.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,953 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 18.5. This one is in the 19th percentile – i.e., 19% of its peers scored the same or lower than it.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 322,842 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.
We're also able to compare this research output to 104 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one is in the 27th percentile – i.e., 27% of its contemporaries scored the same or lower than it.