Assignment On Foundations of Medicine

Environmental Epidemiology – Assignment 1
Student name: Student ID:
What is your Research Question? (10%)
o What segment of the COPD population is impacted from air pollution?
(P – Patient/ population affected by air pollution includes individual’s chronic
obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD))
o What is the correlation of poor air quality on health outcome on patients with
COPD?
(I – Intervention method for this search strategy includes evaluating the air quality
in the area which leads to the health outcome related to respiratory illnesses)
o How can the impact from air pollution be determined in COPD and non COPD
people?
(C – A comparison of the population exposed to air pollution with population not
exposed to air pollution needs to be evaluated)
o What is the outcome of air pollution on health?
(O– Outcome from the impacts of ait pollution includes lung diseases of several
types, rapid deterioration of coronary heart diseases)
Search Strategy (including data sources, keywords/synonyms, inclusion
and exclusion criteria, a flow chart of search hits, etc) (40%)
In order to conduct this research, data and information will be searched from Google
Scholar, Cochrane Library and the library database of Western Sydney University School
of Medicine. These three data sources will be used and the keywords that have been used
for undertaking this research includes, “health impacts of air pollution”, “effects of air

400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
pollution on health”, “diseases caused by air pollution”, “effect of air pollution on COPD
patients”, “COPD vulnerability to air pollution”. The results of search strategy revealed
approximately 200 articles, from which peer-reviewed and recent articles published in the
last 5 years have been used. Time period selected for the article was between 2015 till
2020. 80 articles was obtained from google Scholar, 40 from Cochrane library and 80 from
the library of Western Sydney. Finally, from total of 200 articles, applying exclusion
criteria, 100 articles were rejected. Amongst the 100 articles finalised, almost a 80 articles
was excluded as they had information on specific targeted population only such as
coronary heart patients, with heart diseases, coronary artery diseases, congestive heart
failure, individuals with lung diseases such as asthma, or emphysema, pregnant women,
outdoor workers, older adults and elderly people, children under the age of 14 years and
athletes who exercise vigorously outdoors. These articles did not confirm to the specific
target population that the study aimed at ascertaining. Hence, they were excluded from the
study. Finally, there was 20 articles, which were considered for the purpose of undertaking
this research. 10 articles was selected from Cochrane database, 50 articles from Google
Scholar and 5 from Western Sydney University database.
pg. 2

400862, Foundations of Medicine 2 – Population Health
Summary of results of studies found (20%)
The summary of most of the articles indicate the derogatory effects of air pollution on
patients with COPD. As air pollution remains to be a great matter for public health concern
worldwide. WHO reports considerable number of deaths attributed to air pollution alone.
The adverse effects of air pollution depends upon the type of pollutants for example PM,
NO2 and SO2 have been known to increase rates of mortality. Exposure to O3 can increase
risk of appendicitis. When an individual has long-term exposure to fine PM, it can lead to
increase in cardiovascular diseases as well as mortality. High levels of air pollution is
known to harm particularly those people with COPD. There has been continuous research
in recent years regarding the impact of air pollution on people with pulmonary diseases.
The inspiration for PM which has PAH and diesel comes with an increased risk of bladder
cancer. Air pollution in cities is often high, while local industrial and automotive emissions
are high in high concentrations of pollutants and therefore face higher health risks. Thus in
urban centers can increase the risk of hospitalization in children's hospitals. High
pg. 3
200 articles obtained (80
Google Scholar + 40
Cochcrane + 80 Western
Sydney University)
Remove non peer-
reviewed/ articles older
than 5 years
100 articles
Reject articles not having
specific patient
distribution+ age+
medical condition criteria
Finally = 20 articles from
the databses