A Review of Medication Use as an Indicator of Human Health Impact in Environmentally Stressed Areas.
We reviewed from literature the feasibility of medication use as an indicator of health outcomes in environmentally stressed areas, especially where a paucity of typical epidemiological and other risk-based data are encountered. The majority of studies reported were about medication use as an indicator of adverse respiratory effects from air pollution in developed countries. Studies to a lesser extent pointed to medication use as indicator of health outcomes associated with other environmental health stressors such as water, noise pollution, and habitat conditions. The relationship between environmental stressors and medication use strongly suggests that medication use could be used to measure the impact of environmental stressors that otherwise could not be measured by epidemiological or other impact assessment studies, typically in settings where morbidity and mortality data might not be not accessible.
School of Pharmacy, University of Queensland, Woolloongabba, Queensland, Australia.
Samantha A
SA
Hollingworth
School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia.
Diane Dabok
DD
Kim
School of Public Health, University of Queensland, Herston, Queensland, Australia. Electronic address: p.jagals@uq.edu.au.
Paul
P
Jagals
D000393:Air Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D000397:Air Pollution / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004782:Environmental Health; D006801:Humans; D009622:Noise / Q000009:adverse effects*; D012306:Risk
D000393:Air Pollutants
adverse health outcomes; environmental health indicators; environmental stressors; environmentally stressed areas; medication use