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BackgroundClimate change and the burden of noncommunicable diseases are major global challenges. Opportunities exist to investigate health and climate change co-benefits through a shift from motorized to active transport (walking and cycling) and a shift in dietary patterns away from a globalized diet to reduced consumption of meat and energy dense foods. Given the ubiquitous use and proliferation of smartphone apps, an opportunity exists to use this technology to capture individual travel and dietary behavior and the associated impact on the environment and health. ObjectiveThe objective of the study is to identify, describe the features, and rate the quality of existing smartphone apps which capture personal travel and dietary behavior and simultaneously estimate the carbon cost and potential health consequences of these actions. MethodsThe Google Play and Apple App Stores were searched between October 19 and November 6, 2015, and a secondary Google search using the apps filter was conducted between August 8 and September 18, 2016. Eligible apps were required to estimate the carbon cost of personal behaviors with the potential to include features to maximize health outcomes. The quality of included apps was assessed by 2 researchers using the Mobile Application Rating Scale (MARS). ResultsOut of 7213 results, 40 apps were identified and rated. Multiple travel-related apps were identified, however no apps solely focused on the carbon impact or health consequences of dietary behavior. None of the rated apps provided sufficient information on the health consequences of travel and dietary behavior. Some apps included features to maximize participant engagement and encourage behavior change towards reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Most apps were rated as acceptable quality as determined by the MARS; 1 was of poor quality and 10 apps were of good quality. Interrater reliability of the 2 evaluators was excellent (ICC=0.94, 95% CI 0.87-0.97). ConclusionsExisting apps capturing travel and dietary behavior and the associated health and environmental impact are of mixed quality. Most apps do not include all desirable features or provide sufficient health information. Further research is needed to determine the potential of smartphone apps to evoke behavior change resulting in climate change and health co-benefits.

BackgroundModeling suggests that climate change mitigation actions can have substantial human health benefits that accrue quickly and locally. Documenting the benefits can help drive more ambitious and health-protective climate change mitigation actions; however, documenting the adverse health effects can help to avoid them. Estimating the health effects of mitigation (HEM) actions can help policy makers prioritize investments based not only on mitigation potential but also on expected health benefits. To date, however, the wide range of incompatible approaches taken to developing and reporting HEM estimates has limited their comparability and usefulness to policymakers.ObjectiveThe objective of this effort was to generate guidance for modeling studies on scoping, estimating, and reporting population health effects from climate change mitigation actions.MethodsAn expert panel of HEM researchers was recruited to participate in developing guidance for conducting HEM studies. The primary literature and a synthesis of HEM studies were provided to the panel. Panel members then participated in a modified Delphi exercise to identify areas of consensus regarding HEM estimation. Finally, the panel met to review and discuss consensus findings, resolve remaining differences, and generate guidance regarding conducting HEM studies.ResultsThe panel generated a checklist of recommendations regarding stakeholder engagement: HEM modeling, including model structure, scope and scale, demographics, time horizons, counterfactuals, health response functions, and metrics; parameterization and reporting; approaches to uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; accounting for policy uptake; and discounting.DiscussionThis checklist provides guidance for conducting and reporting HEM estimates to make them more comparable and useful for policymakers. Harmonization of HEM estimates has the potential to lead to advances in and improved synthesis of policy-relevant research that can inform evidence-based decision making and practice. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP6745.

Background: Surveillance of domain-specific physical activity (PA) helps to target interventions to promote PA. We examined the sociodemographic correlates of domain-specific PA in New Zealand adults. Methods: A nationally representative sample of 13,887 adults completed the International PA Questionnaire–long form in 2019/20. Three measures of total and domain-specific (leisure, travel, home, and work) PA were calculated: (1) weekly participation, (2) mean weekly metabolic energy equivalent minutes (MET-min), and (3) median weekly MET-min among those who undertook PA. Results were weighted to the New Zealand adult population. Results: The average contribution of domain-specific activity to total PA was 37.5% for work activities (participation = 43.6%; median participating MET-min = 2790), 31.9% for home activities (participation = 82.2%; median participating MET-min = 1185), 19.4% for leisure activities (participation = 64.7%; median participating MET-min = 933), and 11.2% for travel activities (participation = 64.0%; median MET-min among participants = 495). Women accumulated more home PA and less work PA than men. Total PA was higher in middle-aged adults, with diverse patterns by age within domains. Māori accumulated less leisure PA than New Zealand Europeans but higher total PA. Asian groups reported lower PA across all domains. Higher area deprivation was negatively associated with leisure PA. Sociodemographic patterns varied by measure. For example, gender was not associated with total PA participation, but men accumulated higher MET-min when taking part in PA than women. Conclusions: Inequalities in PA varied by domain and sociodemographic group. These results should be used to inform interventions to improve PA. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globally, nitrate levels in source water have increased as a result of agricultural intensification, which has subsequently increased nitrate contamination in drinking water.[sup.1] Recent epidemiological evidence suggests a link between [...]

Climate change is being felt across all human and natural systems in Aotearoa New Zealand and is projected to worsen this decade as impacts compound and cascade through natural system and sectoral dependencies. The effectiveness of adaptation is constrained by how fast greenhouse gas emissions are reduced globally, the pace of change, the frequency and progression of impacts, and the capacity of our natural, societal and political systems to respond. We explore how these systems and sectors interact with existing and projected climate change stressors by categorising climate change impacts (Trends and Events) and consequential thresholds (Thresholds), and by grouping systems and sectors by types (Typologies). This approach has identified commonalities and differences between the typologies which are illustrated with examples. Critical constraints and opportunities for adaptation have been identified to guide sector adaptation decision-making and for ongoing adaptation progress and effectiveness monitoring. Constraints are found across all sectors, and opportunities exist to address them through modelling and projections, monitoring frameworks, decision tools and measures, governance coordination and integration of the Māori worldview of the relationship between humans and nature. However, limits to adaptation exist and will increase over time unless all sectors and all nations urgently reduce their emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the Pacific region stands at the forefront of climate change related impacts, we need to hear from those most affected especially in terms of the mental health and wellbeing impacts for our Pacific communities. This exploratory study is led and carried out by Pacific and Indigenous researchers with Pacific peoples and seeks to place Pacific voices front and centre of its practice and analysis. This multi-country study was undertaken with Pacific experts and knowledge holders in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Cook Islands and Niuē. This paper foregrounds Pacific perspectives, and considers how western concepts, such as eco- and climate anxiety, can be best applied to understand the mental distress of climate change for Pacific peoples. We demonstrate that there is a deep interconnection between climate change and mental health and wellbeing, and the impacts of this link has been cultural nuanced and defined by and for Pacific peoples. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BACKGROUND: Significant mitigation efforts beyond the Nationally Determined Commitments (NDCs) coming out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement are required to avoid warming of 2°C above pre-industrial temperatures. Health co-benefits represent selected near term, positive consequences of climate policies that can offset mitigation costs in the short term before the beneficial impacts of those policies on the magnitude of climate change are evident. The diversity of approaches to modeling mitigation options and their health effects inhibits meta-analyses and syntheses of results useful in policy-making. METHODS/DESIGN: We evaluated the range of methods and choices in modeling health co-benefits of climate mitigation to identify opportunities for increased consistency and collaboration that could better inform policy-making. We reviewed studies quantifying the health co-benefits of climate change mitigation related to air quality, transportation, and diet published since the 2009 Lancet Commission Managing the health effects of climate change through January 2017. We documented approaches, methods, scenarios, health-related exposures, and health outcomes. RESULTS/SYNTHESIS: Forty-two studies met the inclusion criteria. Air quality, transportation, and diet scenarios ranged from specific policy proposals to hypothetical scenarios, and from global recommendations to stakeholder-informed local guidance. Geographic and temporal scope as well as validity of scenarios determined policy relevance. More recent studies tended to use more sophisticated methods to address complexity in the relevant policy system. DISCUSSION: Most studies indicated significant, nearer term, local ancillary health benefits providing impetus for policy uptake and net cost savings. However, studies were more suited to describing the interaction of climate policy and health and the magnitude of potential outcomes than to providing specific accurate estimates of health co-benefits. Modeling the health co-benefits of climate policy provides policy-relevant information when the scenarios are reasonable, relevant, and thorough, and the model adequately addresses complexity. Greater consistency in selected modeling choices across the health co-benefits of climate mitigation research would facilitate evaluation of mitigation options particularly as they apply to the NDCs and promote policy uptake.

In this study, we use a strengths-based approach to explore the ways that walking and cycling are practised and promoted in Māngere and Ōtara, two ethnically diverse, lower-income suburbs of Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Using practice theory and positioning our research within a growing body of work on marginalised mobility cultures and the 'human infrastructure' of active transport, we find that family-centred, inclusive events; holistic promotion models; and strong volunteering and skills sharing networks are foundations of active mobility in South Auckland. Amongst the barriers to participation that were reported in our study, threats to safety stand out: They include road safety, concerns about personal security and stray dogs. Dealing with these threats requires advanced skills or 'competences' to sustain walking and cycling – particularly amongst women. We highlight the ways that infrastructural investment and community funding processes may help to overcome barriers and enable these communities to 'roll together'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]