School of Public Health, University of California-Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94704, USA.
College of Health Sciences, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Mar 1;15(3):427. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15030427.
An important aspect of the new sustainable development goals (SDGs) is a greater emphasis on reducing the health impacts from ambient air pollution in developing countries. Meanwhile, the burden of human disease attributable to ambient air pollution in sub-Saharan Africa is growing, yet estimates of its impact on the region are possibly underestimated due to a lack of air quality monitoring, a paucity of air pollution epidemiological studies, and important population vulnerabilities in the region. The lack of ambient air pollution epidemiologic data in sub-Saharan Africa is also an important global health disparity. Thousands of air pollution health effects studies have been conducted in Europe and North America, rather than in urban areas that have some of the highest measured air pollution levels in world, including urban areas in sub-Saharan Africa. In this paper, we provide a systematic and narrative review of the literature on ambient air pollution epidemiological studies that have been conducted in the region to date. Our review of the literature focuses on epidemiologic studies that measure air pollutants and relate air pollution measurements with various health outcomes. We highlight the gaps in ambient air pollution epidemiological studies conducted in different sub-regions of sub-Saharan Africa and provide methodological recommendations for future environmental epidemiology studies addressing ambient air pollution in the region.
新的可持续发展目标（SDGs）的一个重要方面是更加重视减少发展中国家的环境空气污染对健康的影响。与此同时，撒哈拉以南非洲地区因环境空气污染导致的人类疾病负担正在增加，但由于空气质量监测不足、空气污染流行病学研究匮乏，以及该地区人口的重要脆弱性，其对该地区的影响可能被低估。撒哈拉以南非洲地区缺乏环境空气污染流行病学数据也是一个重要的全球健康差距。数千项关于空气污染对健康影响的研究都是在欧洲和北美进行的，而不是在世界上一些空气污染水平最高的城市地区进行的，包括撒哈拉以南非洲的城市地区。在本文中，我们对迄今为止在该地区进行的环境空气污染流行病学研究的文献进行了系统和叙述性的回顾。我们对文献的回顾侧重于测量空气污染物并将空气污染测量与各种健康结果联系起来的流行病学研究。我们强调了在撒哈拉以南非洲不同次区域进行的环境空气污染流行病学研究中的差距，并为该地区未来针对环境空气污染的环境流行病学研究提供了方法学建议。
