Ongoing studies

RECORD-GPSBruit pilot study: individual exposures to noise and associated impact on blood pressure among hypertensive people in Ile-de-France

Beginning : 06/2013, end : 06/2015

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

The high blood pressure and its greater variation in response to various factors (stress, alcohol) in hypertensive patients perpetuate inflammation mechanisms. This physiologic disturbance generates chronic hypertension and increases the risk of triggering cardiovascular events and strokes. Among factors that may act as a stimulus, noise is considered as the first source of nuisance by the Ile-de-France residents. As the noise exposure varies greatly between territories, it is useful to focus on noise exposure and its health consequences in living environments. In order to better understand and study the stimulus-response relationship between noise and blood pressure in living environments of hypertensive patients in the Ile-de-France region, an approach of continuous measurement of noise and blood pressure is relevant. Based on the already existing RECORD GPS study, our project “RECORD-GPSBruit” proposes to use new technologies of measurement, i.e., the combination of a personal sensor of noise and a holter for blood pressure as well as a GPS, an accelerometer, and a galvanic skin response sensor to measure confounding and mediating factors of the relationships between exposure to noise in living environments and stress. The methodological objective of this pilot study (n = 25) is to evaluate the RECORD-GPSBruit methodology that combines environmental, behavioral, and biological parameters continuously measured by personal sensors with analyses performed at different levels (individual, infra-individual) that compare the effects of different noise exposure windows on blood pressure. The project is funded by ADEME in the context of a research project call of ANSES, and will be coordinated and conducted by Julie Méline.

Is it relevant to focus on active transport to promote a regular physical activity? A study based on GPS and accelerometers

Beginning : 02/2011, end : 06/2015

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

The promotion of active transport is increasingly seen as a relevant strategy to raise physical activity levels in the population. However, important questions for Public health decision makers remain unanswered. First, to which extent is it relevant to focus on transport to promote a regular physical activity, in comparison with other sources of physical activity? Second, to which extent public policies attempting to promote physical activity through the lever of transport should focus, in addition to walking and biking, on the use of public transport? Third, are there any risks that a policy of promotion of physical activity based on transport increases social disparities in physical activity levels? In order to answer to these questions, it is important to rely on methodologies of objective measurement of mobility, as studies have shown that questionnaires lead to measurement error and systematic biases. The objectives of the project are: (i) to examine the extent to which the transport activity contributes to the overall physical activity and energy expenditure of an individual over 7 days; (ii) to compare the time spent in moderate to vigorous physical activity during transportation over 7 days to the PNNS recommended time of physical activity; (iii) to study the relationships between the transportation modes that are used and physical activity; (iv) to investigate the social and environmental determinants of transportation habits and transportation-related physical activity; and (v) to perform simulations to assess the extent to which different scenarios of change of transportation habits would be associated with an increase in the proportion of people reaching the physical activity recommendation. In the RECORD GPS Study, participants are invited to wear a GPS and an accelerometer at the belt for 7 days, and are surveyed in detail (with an electronic application) on the activities that they practiced at the different places and on the transportation modes employed over 7 days.

The physical, service-related, and social-interactional environment and blood pressure

Beginning : 01/2011, end : 06/2013

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD et Université de Montréal

A previous work based on the RECORD Study investigated socio-territorial disparities in blood pressure, i.e., differences in blood pressure on the territory, especially among socially advantaged and disadvantaged neighborhoods. This study published in Hypertension showed that blood pressure increased with decreasing socioeconomic status of the residential neighborhood, even after accounting for individual socioeconomic characteristics. The objective is, in our future work, to examine relationships between, on the one hand, the built environment, other exposures of the physical environment (air pollution, noise, etc.), opportunities for transportation and physical activity, the food environment, and different aspects of social relationships in the neighborhood and, on the other hand, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure of participants. The aim will be to identify, on the one hand, the environmental resources and exposures that allow one to explain disparities in blood pressure documented between advantaged and disadvantaged neighborhoods and, on the other hand, other environmental dimensions associated with blood pressure without particular connection with neighborhood socioeconomic status.

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Activity spaces, mobility, and environmental effects on health

Beginning : 01/2011, end : 06/2014

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD et Université de Montréal

Most published studies on the relationships between geographic life environments and health have only considered the residential environment of individuals but not the many other geographic places (non-residential environments) to which individuals are regularly exposed to in their daily lives. To overcome this limitation, we will use different sources of information to assess some of the places where participants of the RECORD Study regularly go, in an attempt to characterize the spatial behavior (mobility) of participants and the extent and configuration of their activity space. The aim of this work is to examine whether people who spend a reduced share of their time in their residential environment are less sensitive to the health effects of residential neighborhood characteristics, and to construct environmental variables that take into account exposure to non-residential environments. Additional analyses on this issue will be planned based on the data to collect in the second RECORD Study wave.

Association of supermarket brand and supermarket characteristics with body mass index and waist circumference

Beginning : 11/2010, end : 12/2011

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Previous literature on the relationships between the food environment and excess weight overwhelmingly used measures of the food environment defined for the residential environment. All of these measures do not reflect the personal food environment of individuals, because it is not known in these studies whether participants effectively use or not food supermarkets located around their residence. A complementary strategy may be to derive personal measures of the food environment through the identification of the food stores people effectively use. Accordingly, our aims in this study are to examine whether participants who did most of their food shopping in the same supermarket had a more comparable body mass index and waist circumference than participants who shopped in different supermarkets (after accounting for the residential neighborhood) and to assess whether variations between supermarkets in body mass index and waist circumference can be explained by different supermarket characteristics (supermarket brand, distance to the supermarket, supermarket size, socioeconomic status of supermarket catchment area, and quality of fruits and vegetables in the supermarket).

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Residential exposure to road traffic noise and risk of hypertension: are there more vulnerable populations?

Beginning : 10/2010, end : 12/2013

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Road traffic-related noise is nowadays a major environmental risk to which urban populations are exposed. Long-term exposure to road traffic noise is likely to affect the cardiovascular system, especially through stress-related diseases such as myocardial infarction and hypertension. Using modeled noise data from the noise monitoring agency of the City of Paris and the RECORD Cohort, our objectives are 1) to explore the association between participants’ exposure to road traffic noise in their residential neighborhood and the risk of hypertension after adjustment for many confounding factors and 2) to identify, using individual and neighborhood characteristics, the socio-demographic profile of people who may be more sensitive to the health effects of road traffic noise exposure.

Contribution of the physical environment, service environment, and social-interactional environment to territorial disparities in obesity

Beginning : 06/2010, end : 06/2014

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

In the first analyses based on the RECORD Study, we have documented significant disparities in excess weight between affluent and deprived neighborhoods of the Paris Metropolitan area. We have shown that the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of people could not fully explain these differences in body mass index and waist circumference observed between neighborhoods. Based on these preliminary findings, our aim in an ongoing study is to assess whether different obesogenic characteristics related to the physical environment, service environment, and social-interactional environment may contribute to disparities in body weight and abdominal fat observed between affluent and deprived neighborhoods. Examples of environmental characteristics that may have an obesogenic influence include the absence of parks and green spaces, a street network or built forms that do not encourage to walking, a lack of sport facilities, a high density of fast-food restaurants, a poor access to supermarkets selling healthy and fresh products at an affordable cost, etc. The accumulation of a number of these obesogenic characteristics in a neighborhood may contribute to increase the obesity risk.

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The environmental determinants of physical activity

Beginning : 06/2010, end : 10/2014

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

While traditional studies were often focused on the individual determinants of physical activity, a growing research area is interested in the effects that geographic life environments, as a source of environmental opportunities or environmental barriers, may have on physical activity behaviors. The objective of the project based on the data of the first wave of the RECORD Study is to examine associations between different environmental resources and exposures and different forms of physical activity: informal recreational physical activities (such as jogging or recreational walking), more formal recreational physical activities (that often need sport facilities), and physical activity made during transport (utilitarian walking). The studies performed will attempt to develop methodologies to measure contextual exposures in studies of physical activity: by taking into account the network of streets in the spatial accessibility to resources, by measuring resources and exposures not only around the residence but also around the workplace or the residence – workplace itinerary, etc.

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The environmental determinants of physical activity

Beginning : 06/2010, end : 10/2014

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

While traditional studies were often focused on the individual determinants of physical activity, a growing research area is interested in the effects that geographic life environments, as a source of environmental opportunities or environmental barriers, may have on physical activity behaviors. The objective of the project based on the data of the first wave of the RECORD Study is to examine associations between different environmental resources and exposures and different forms of physical activity: informal recreational physical activities (such as jogging or recreational walking), more formal recreational physical activities (that often need sport facilities), and physical activity made during transport (utilitarian walking). The studies performed will attempt to develop methodologies to measure contextual exposures in studies of physical activity: by taking into account the network of streets in the spatial accessibility to resources, by measuring resources and exposures not only around the residence but also around the workplace or the residence – workplace itinerary, etc.

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Contribution of the physical environment, service environment, and social-interactional environment to territorial disparities in obesity

Beginning : 06/2010, end : 06/2014

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

In the first analyses based on the RECORD Study, we have documented significant disparities in excess weight between affluent and deprived neighborhoods of the Paris Metropolitan area. We have shown that the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of people could not fully explain these differences in body mass index and waist circumference observed between neighborhoods. Based on these preliminary findings, our aim in an ongoing study is to assess whether different obesogenic characteristics related to the physical environment, service environment, and social-interactional environment may contribute to disparities in body weight and abdominal fat observed between affluent and deprived neighborhoods. Examples of environmental characteristics that may have an obesogenic influence include the absence of parks and green spaces, a street network or built forms that do not encourage to walking, a lack of sport facilities, a high density of fast-food restaurants, a poor access to supermarkets selling healthy and fresh products at an affordable cost, etc. The accumulation of a number of these obesogenic characteristics in a neighborhood may contribute to increase the obesity risk.

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Socio-spatial disparities in oral health and their behavioral determinants

Beginning : 03/2010, end : 06/2013

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Oral and dental diseases are an important public health problem due to their prevalence and to the associated costs. The international literature on social and socio-spatial disparities in oral health remains relatively scarce. Accordingly, relying on the data collected in the RECORD Cohort Study for 4123 participants through dental examinations, we propose to investigate variations in the number of decayed teeth identified during the examination. The first study objective was to identify individual demographic and socioeconomic characteristics associated with the number of decayed teeth. A second objective was to assess whether neighborhood socioeconomic status was independently related to the number of decayed teeth. A third objective was to examine whether different health behaviors and risk factors allowed us to explain the observed social and socio-spatial disparities in oral health.

Les disparités d’obésité en Île-de-France : une influence massive du niveau socio-économique du quartier de résidence

Beginning : 09/2009, end : 06/2011

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

L’épidémiologie d’obésité qui frappe les pays industrialisés va de pair avec des disparités sociales massives d’excès de poids. Afin de concevoir les interventions les plus adaptées et de cibler au mieux ces interventions sur les populations qui en ont le plus besoin, il s’agira d’examiner dans quelle mesure, au-delà des effets imputables aux caractéristiques sociales individuelles, le niveau socio-économique de la zone de résidence (à différentes échelles plus ou moins locales) contribue aux disparités sociales à la fois d’indice de masse corporelle et de tour de taille. Ces résultats sur le poids respectifs des facteurs sociaux individuels et contextuels permettront en outre d’orienter nos recherches futures sur les déterminants sociaux de l’obésité.

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Les disparités d’exposition au bruit lié au trafic en fonction des caractéristiques des quartiers : une étude de justice environnementale

Beginning : 05/2009, end : 11/2010

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Un nombre d’études relativement important s’est intéressé aux disparités sociales qui existent en matière d’exposition à la pollution atmosphérique, mettant à jour des situations d’« injustice environnementale ». En revanche, très peu travaux ont spécifiquement étudié les inégalités sociales d’exposition au bruit associé au trafic routier. A partir de données de l’Observatoire du Bruit de Paris appariées à la Cohorte RECORD, l’objectif était de voir si les populations socialement défavorisées connaissent des niveaux d’exposition plus importants au bruit routier à proximité de leur lieu de résidence. Ce travail devrait fournir de premiers éléments de réponse à la question de savoir si l’exposition au bruit peut contribuer aux disparités sociales de santé, par exemple de pression artérielle.

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Associations entre niveau socio-économique du quartier de résidence et pression artérielle : rôle du poids et de la fréquence cardiaque comme mécanismes explicatifs ?

Beginning : 04/2009, end : 01/2010

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Peu d’études, en France comme dans les pays anglo-saxons, se sont intéressées aux disparités de pression artérielle qui existent entre quartiers favorisés et défavorisés. Encore moins d’études ont cherché à identifier les mécanismes à l’origine des associations entre niveau socio-économique de la zone de résidence et pression artérielle. En conséquence, l’étude avait un double objectif : (i) examiner si les caractéristiques socio-économiques des individus et de leur quartier de résidence étaient associées à la pression artérielle des participants, et (ii) chercher à voir si un certains nombre de facteurs de risque d’hypertension artérielle (par exemple, la consommation de tabac et d’alcool, l’activité physique, l’indice de masse corporelle, le tour de taille, la glycémie et la fréquence cardiaque) interviennent comme facteurs intermédiaires permettant de rendre compte des associations entre variables socio-économiques et pression artérielle. Une telle étude devrait permettre de préciser les mécanismes au travers desquels le contexte socio-économique est associé à la pression artérielle.

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Les environnements qui encouragent à la marche : quels facteurs du contexte physique et social influencent la perception individuelle ?

Beginning : 03/2009, end : 06/2013

Status : ongoing study

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

Afin de développer des environnements géographiques de vie qui encouragent à la marche, il est important d’examiner, au-delà de l’idée qu’en ont les chercheurs, quelles sont les caractéristiques des quartiers qui les rendent appropriés et agréables pour la marche aux yeux des résidents eux-mêmes. En s’appuyant sur des schémas causaux construits a priori, l’objectif était donc d’identifier les différents facteurs de l’environnement physique, de services et d’interactions sociales qui conduisent les participants à estimer que leur environnement est agréable pour la marche. Ce premier travail devrait nous aider à intégrer les perceptions des individus dans nos modèles explicatifs des comportements de santé.

Déterminants individuels et contextuels de la participation à la Cohorte RECORD : une étude des mécanismes de sélection

Beginning : 02/2009, end : 01/2011

Status : completed

Performed by : Groupe RECORD

L’Etude RECORD ne s’appuyant pas sur un échantillon aléatoire, il est utile d’étudier les mécanismes qui conduisent à la participation ou à la non-participation à l’étude. Tout particulièrement, nous intéressant aux effets des environnements géographiques de vie, l’objectif de cette première étude était d’examiner si les différentes caractéristiques des environnements de résidence sont susceptibles d’influer sur les chances de participation des populations à l’étude. Les résultats obtenus devraient être utiles pour les analyses à venir, afin de tenir compte des biais que ces mécanismes de sélection peuvent entraîner.

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