The aim of this research project is to understand the associations between air pollution exposure and built enviroment on multiple physical, mental and cognitive health outcomes, dementia and mortality.
1. The proposed research will aim to understand the links from air pollution exposure to mental health, cognitive function (and dementia), chronic disease, and mortality, and how the relationship is configured by urban built environment, lifestyle, SES and genetic factors. Causal evidence generated from the study will inform strategies and policies towards minimising exposures from health inhibiting urban environments, especially harmful air pollutants.
2. We hypothesize that participants residing nearer to healthcare facilities have higher utilization of care services and hence lower mortality, reduced chronic disease prevalence and length of stays in hospitals. The proposed project aims to test this hypothesis among the UK Biobank participants (N=500,000) employing the healthcare accessibility metrics within the UK Biobank Urban Morphometrics Platform (UKBUMP).
The evidence thus generated will help optimize healthcare service allocation with an aim to minimize mortality, DALYs and healthcare expenditures. The evidence will also inform strategies for pollution management in major cities around the world.
The project length will be 36 months.