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This study aimed to examine the environmental and operational factors that disrupt sleep in the acute, non-ICU hospital setting. This was a prospective study of adult patients admitted to an acute tertiary hospital ward (shared versus single room) and sleep laboratory (single room conducive to sleep). This study measured ambient light (lux) and sound (dB), number of operational interruptions, and questionnaires assessing sleep and mental health. Sixty patients were enrolled, 20 in a double bedroom located close to the nursing station (‘shared ward’), 20 in a single bedroom located distant to the nursing station (‘single ward’) and 20 attending the sleep laboratory for overnight polysomnography (‘sleep laboratory’). Sleep was disturbed in 45% of patients in the shared and single ward groups (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index > 5). Light levels were appropriately low across all 3 locations. Sound levels (significant effect of room F(1.38) = 6.452, p = 0.015) and operational interruptions (shared ward 5.6 ± 2.5, single ward 6.2 ± 2.9, sleep laboratory 2.7 ± 2.1 per night, p

BACKGROUND: Indoor environments contain a broad diversity of non-pathogenic Basidiomycota yeasts, but their role in exacerbating adverse health effects has remained unclear. OBJECTIVE: To understand the role of Vishniacozyma victoriae exposure and its impact on human health. METHODS: A qPCR assay was developed to detect and quantify an abundant indoor yeast species, Vishniacozyma victoriae (syn. Cryptococcus victoriae), from homes participating in the New York City Neighborhood Asthma and Allergy Study (NAAS). We evaluated the associations between V. victoriae, housing characteristics, and asthma relevant health endpoints. RESULTS: V. victoriae was quantified in 236 of the 256 bedroom floor dust samples ranging from less than 300 to 45,918 cell equivalents/mg of dust. Higher concentrations of V. victoriae were significantly associated with carpeted bedroom floors (P=0.044), mean specific humidity (P=0.004), winter (P

The study of the fungal community composition in house dust is useful to assess the cumulative exposure to fungi in indoor environments. The objective of this research was to characterize the fungal diversity of house dust and its association with the environmental conditions of bedrooms. For this, the dust was collected from 41 bedrooms of children between the ages of 8 and 9 with a family history of asthma, residents of Havana, Cuba. The fungal content of each sample was determined by two methods: plate culture with Malt Extract Agar and by direct microscopy. An ecological analysis was carried out from the fungal diversity detected. To describe the factors associated with the fungi detected, bivariate logistic regression was used. Through direct microscopy, between 10-2311 fragments of hyphae and spores corresponding mainly to Cladosporium, Coprinus, Curvularia, Aspergillus/Penicillium, Xylariaceae, and Periconia were identified. Through the culture, 0–208 CFU were quantified, where Aspergillus, Cladosporium, and Penicillium predominated. The culturability evidenced the differences between the quantification determined by both methods. A positive relationship was found between the type of cleaning of the furniture, the presence of trees in front of the bedroom, indoor relative humidity, indoor temperature, the presence of air conditioning by air conditioning and natural ventilation with specific spore types and genders. The use of two different identification methods allowed to detect a greater fungal diversity in the residences evaluated. Monitoring the exposure to these fungal allergens in childhood can help to prevent sensitization in the allergic child, the development of asthma and other respiratory diseases.

A series of fire experiments were conducted in an ISO 9705 room in an attempt to reconstruct a multi-item room fire produced by individual items. Fuel items represented typical shapes and sizes of furniture in a bedroom including a double bed, bedside tables, wardrobe, dressing table and chair. As all of the fuel items were made of seasoned pine timber, these are termed as “mock furniture”. Double bed and bedside tables also had cotton sheets above them. The ignition was attained by using a steel tray of methylated spirit. This study is motivated by the fact that multi-item solid fuel-burning experimental results are rarely available. First, a number of standalone items within the ISO room were burnt separately. Then, all of the items were placed within the ISO room, and the fire was allowed to spread throughout the room from one item to another. An attempt was made to reconstruct the full room burning from individual item burning. The heat release rate of the reconstructed fire is different from that of the full room multi-item furniture burn experiment. A list of possible causes has been explained.

Background In highly polluted urban areas, personal exposure to PM2.5 and O3 occur daily in various microenvironments. Identifying which microenvironments contribute most to exposure can pinpoint effective exposure reduction strategies and mitigate adverse health impacts. Methods This work uses real-time sensors to assess the exposures of children with asthma (N = 39) in Shanghai, quantifying microenvironmental exposure to PM2.5 and O3. An air cleaner was deployed in participants' bedrooms where we hypothesized exposure could be most efficiently reduced. Monitoring occurred for two 48-h periods: one with bedroom filtration (portable air cleaner with HEPA and activated carbon filters) and the other without. Results Children spent 91% of their time indoors with the majority spent in their bedroom (47%). Without filtration, the bedroom and classroom environments were the largest contributors to PM2.5 exposure. With filtration, bedroom PM2.5 exposure was reduced by 75% (45% of total exposure). Although filtration status did not impact O3, the largest contribution of O3 exposure also came from the bedroom. Conclusions Actions taken to reduce bedroom PM2.5 and O3 concentrations can most efficiently reduce total exposure. As real-time pollutant monitors become more accessible, similar analyses can be used to evaluate new interventions and optimize exposure reductions for a variety of populations.

Sexual need fulfillment in a relationship is associated with both partners' sexual and relationship quality. In the current research, we explored what underlies two approaches to sexual need fulfillment-sexual communal norms (i.e., being motivated to meet a partner's sexual needs) and sexual exchange norms (i.e., tracking and trading sexual benefits). People high in attachment avoidance are less responsive to their partner's needs and distance themselves from intimacy. Sexuality is a domain in which partners aim to meet each other's needs, but it may also heighten avoidantly attached partners' concerns about intimacy. Across three studies (N = 711)-using cross-sectional, dyadic, daily experience, and longitudinal methods-endorsing sexual communal norms was associated with greater sexual and relationship quality, whereas endorsing sexual exchange norms was not associated with, or was linked to lower, sexual and relationship quality. People who were higher (compared to lower) in attachment avoidance were less sexually communal and more exchange-oriented, and their heightened endorsement of sexual exchange norms predicted lower relationship satisfaction over time. With two exceptions, the effects were largely consistent for men versus women. Findings from this research suggest that attachment avoidance underlies approaches to sexual need fulfillment in relationships.

Analysts may have multiple measures of household crowding, and so need to know which measure to emphasise. We analyse the relationships between alternative subjective and objective crowding measures and assess how well these alternative measures predict a measure of residential satisfaction. Statistically, a perceived crowding (PC) measure outperforms the people per bedroom (PPBR) measure, an objective measure of crowding. However, there may be bias in the relationship between PC and the residential satisfaction variable. Amongst objective measures, the Canadian National Occupancy Standard also outperforms PPBR. Nevertheless, all three measures are highly correlated and each helps to predict levels of residential satisfaction. Thus, any of the three measures provides a valid indicator of household crowding when assessing housing stress.

The automatic creation of a repository of the building’s floor plan helps a lot to the architects to reuse them. The basic approach is to extract and recognize texts, symbols or graphics to retrieve the information of the floor plan from the images. This paper proposes a floor plan information retrieval algorithm. The proposed algorithm is based on shape extraction and room identification. $$\alpha $$ -shape is used for finding an accurate shape. From the detected shapes, actual areas of rooms are calculated. Later, a regression model-based binary room classification model is proposed to classify them into room-type, i.e., bedroom, drawing room, kitchen, and non-room-type, i.e., parking porch, bathroom, study room and prayer room. The proposed model is tested on the CVC-FP dataset with an average room detection accuracy of 85.71% and room recognition accuracy of 88%.

To understand the factors shaping commute behaviour, we need to relate dwelling tenure and location to commuting decisions, especially at the expanding edges of emerging megacities such as those in China. This paper proposes a cross-sectional examination of housing choice, public transport provision and automobile related behaviour to understand the underlying mechanism for travel behaviour. Residential communities at the urban periphery (n = 25) were randomly sampled by stratified house price in three suburban extension areas of Beijing. Respondents intercepted in the public environment (n = 1224) provided information on household characteristics, housing tenure, and commute choices over a timeframe. The relationships among these variables were examined using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Research findings showed that public transport provision had positive effect on car ownership, and housing choice including dwelling tenure and job-housing distance had significant impact on automobile ownership and commute as well. Within housing choice, tenure status had positive significant effect on job-housing distance. Public transport provision was also found to have significant impact on housing choice behaviours. While previous work on commuting behaviour has concentrated on transport-related factors, these results indicate that travel outcomes are related to a considerable extent to urban development factors that are susceptible to policy control.

Objective To investigate how mealtime setting, mealtime interaction and bedroom screens are associated with different trajectories of child overweight and obesity, using a population sample. Methods Growth mixture modelling used data from children in the Growing Up in Scotland Study born in 2004/5 (boys n = 2085, girls n = 1991) to identify trajectories of overweight or obesity across four time points, from 46 to 122 months. Using data from children present at all sweeps, and combining sexes (n = 2810), mutually adjusted associations between primary exposures (mealtime setting, mealtime interaction and bedroom screens) and trajectory class were explored in multinomial models; controlling for early life factors, household organisation and routines, and children’s diet patterns, overall screen use, physical activity and sleep. Results Five trajectories were identified in both sexes: Low Risk (68% of sample), Decreasing Overweight (9%), Increasing Overweight (12%), High/Stable Overweight (6%) and High/Increasing Obesity (5%). Compared with the Low Risk trajectory, High/Increasing Obesity and High/Stable Overweight trajectories were characterised by early increases in bedroom screen access (respective relative risk ratios (RRR) and 95% confidence intervals: 2.55 [1.30–5.00]; 1.62 [1.01–2.57]). An informal meal setting (involving mealtime screen use, not eating in a dining area and not sitting at a table) characterised the High/Increasing Obesity and Increasing Overweight trajectories (respective RRRs compared with Low Risk trajectory: 3.67 [1.99–6.77]; 1.75 [1.17–2.62]). Positive mealtime interaction was associated with membership of the Increasing Overweight trajectory (RRR 1.64 [1.13–2.36]). Conclusion Bedroom screen access and informal mealtime environments were associated with higher-risk overweight and obesity trajectories in a representative sample of Scottish children, after adjusting for a wide range of confounders. Findings may challenge the notion that positive mealtime interaction is protective. Promoting mealtimes in a screen-free dining area and removing screens from bedrooms may help combat childhood obesity.

“Why don’t you meet me in the middle, middle.” Maren Morris “Middle” When I woke up this morning, I got out of bed, opened my bedroom door, went to the other side of the house, into the home office, turned on the computer, logged in, and opened up my word processing program. I then proceeded to create a new document and stared at the white screen familiar to us all. I did all of these acts purposefully and of my own accord. As a tenured, full professor nothing made me undertake all those steps on this particular morning.

BackgroundThe elderly population in Hong Kong is rapidly growing, and the need for residential care homes (RCHs) is increasing. The risk of being infected with micro-organisms increases among the frail and the vulnerable elderly population as their immunity system begins to deteriorate. Furthermore, the residents in RCHs are at high risk of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) due to the confined living environments and individual co-morbidities. In relation to this, infection control practice (ICP) is considered a crucial and effective approach in preventing HAIs. This study aimed to observe the daily ICP of healthcare workers in RCH settings.MethodsAn observational study was conducted to observe daily ICP among healthcare workers in private and subsidized RCHs. Each RCH was separated into different units based on the location (common area and bedroom area) and nature of residents for successive days. The ICP episodes were observed until 200 opportunities in each unit. The ICP episodes were recorded by an electronic tool called “eRub,” which is an ICP checklist based on international guidelines.ResultsThe most frequent observed ICP episodes were hand hygiene (n = 1053), the use of gloves (n = 1053) and respiratory protection (n = 1053). The overall compliance of hand hygiene was poor, with only 15% of participants performing this during the “five moments for hand hygiene.” Furthermore, the observations showed that 77.9% improperly performed the use of gloves, and 31.8% failed to wear a mask during the care provision for the elderly. However, the results showed that most healthcare workers can wear the mask in a proper way when they should. Generally, the personal care workers were the worst in terms of hand hygiene and use of gloves compared with the other types of healthcare workers.ConclusionsDespite the fact that the practice of hand hygiene, the use of gloves, and respiratory protection were the important elements of ICP, overall compliance to these elements was still poor. Personal care workers had the most frequent contact with the residents, but they had the worst compliance rate. Hence, continued monitoring and training among healthcare workers is needed, particularly personal care workers, in this healthcare service setting.

There are currently efforts to inform the public of the fire safety benefits of keeping bedroom doors closed when occupants are sleeping. A closed door can provide a substantial advantage to sleeping occupants of a bedroom in the event of a fire by hindering the spread of heat and toxic gases. The overall benefit in this arrangement is clear when occupants have interconnected smoke alarms inside and outside the sleeping areas as detection and notification of the fire is not hindered by a closed door. Concerns have arisen for situations when such a detection and notification arrangement is not present in the residence and the door can act as an obstacle for rapid detection and notification of occupants. Calculations and data from the fire science literature were used to evaluate the effect of a closed bedroom door on the number of unsuccessful evacuation outcomes that may result from fires originating in the bedroom, as well as the effect of a closed bedroom door on the audibility of smoke alarms for fires originating elsewhere in the residence. This was combined with statistics on smoke alarm coverage, residential fires, and fatalities to quantify the unsuccessful evacuation outcomes. These results were compared with the number of fire fatalities where a closed bedroom door could offer a benefit. Overall, it was found that the number of unsuccessful evacuation outcomes from a closed bedroom door were relatively small and that the potential benefit of closing a bedroom door was far greater. The analysis concludes that on a purely technical basis, closing the bedroom door at night will save lives and provides a net benefit to the public.

North American child media guidelines suggest screen-free zones without offering clear evidence and alternative harm-reduction strategies. Our hypothesis is that having a bedroom television during the preschool years will be prospectively associated with mental and physical health risks in adolescence. Participants are from a prospective-longitudinal birth cohort of 907 girls and 952 boys from the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development. Child outcomes at ages 12 and 13, measured by multiple sources, were linearly regressed on having a bedroom television at age 4. Bedroom television at age 4 predicted a higher body mass index at age 12 (standardized B = 0.10, p

This study evaluated the impact of 4‑day exposure to posters pairing physical activity or sedentary behavior with positive stimuli on implicit attitudes toward physical activity versus sedentary behavior, and physical activity measured with accelerometers. This study was conducted among participants enrolled in a pulmonary rehabilitation program. Participants (N = 79) were randomized into groups exposed to (i) posters of people being physically active, (ii) posters of people engaged in sedentary behaviors, or (iii) control, not exposed. Over four days, different posters were put in patients’ bedrooms. Participants were not informed of the link between the intervention and the evaluations. Implicit attitudes were measured with an Implicit Association Test at the start and at the end of the intervention. Physical activity was measured with accelerometers the weekend after the intervention. Regarding implicit attitudes, results showed a non-significant time × group interaction. There were also no significant differences between groups regarding physical activity. Bayesian analyses confirmed these null hypotheses. Putting posters pairing physical activity stimuli with positive stimuli in patients’ bedroom during a rehabilitation program did not impact their implicit attitudes or physical activity behavior. Other studies are needed to develop effective interventions targeting implicit attitudes.

INTRODUCTION: Arizona has the highest incidence of scorpion envenomation reported to US poison control centers (PCCs). Most cases reported are from a residence, but specific details are limited. METHODS: Specialists at Arizona’s two PCCs prospectively completed the Factors of Envenomation in Arizona Residences Survey (FEARS) for residential scorpion exposures reported during 4-week periods in the summer and winter. Based on these results, a second questionnaire, FEARS-2, targeting indoor residential exposures was then administered. RESULTS: Among 382 FEARS responses, no significant differences were found between summer and winter exposures, except for rainfall in the previous 24 hours. Scorpions had previously been seen in 81.8% of exposures, and 29.4% reported a previous envenomation at the residence. Most exposures occurred indoors (86.5%) and in a bedroom (42.5%), where the scorpion was in the bed in 54.7% of cases. Among all stings in a bed, 72.7% occurred while sleeping. Children were stung more often in a family room (38.6% vs. 14.5%; p

This study aimed to examine how environmental factors are associated with physical activity (PA) and screen-time (ST) among children with and without ASD (n = 1380 and 1411, respectively). For TD children, the absence of a bedroom television and neighborhood support were associated with PA. For children with ASD, no environmental factors were associated with PA. Regarding ST, the presence of a bedroom television, absence of limits on ST, lack of neighborhood amenities and support, and adverse neighborhood factors were all associated with ST among TD children. For children with ASD, the presence of a bedroom television and the absence of limits on ST were associated with ST. Potential explanations for this dichotomy and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The aims of this article are to assess the quality of the indoor living environment of a senior housing (rental apartments for older adults aged 65+) in Hasselgarden, Stockholm Municipality (Sweden’s capital), in 2014, in relation to their mobility, and to suggest improvement strategies. First, the physical indoor environment of older adults is examined via a fieldwork checklist devised in accordance with the principles of universal design (UD). Second, their indoor environment is assessed through a survey that includes subjective questions about seniors’ use of space, experience of falls, and safety perception. Third, the study explores whether the applications of UD in the seniors’ indoor living environment contribute to the understanding of their use of space, experience of falls, and safety perception. Fieldwork inspections and a detailed survey with residents are used as a basis for the empirical analysis. Overall, 27 out of 56 questionnaires were collected, and ten apartments have been visited in the fieldwork. Findings indicate that the living room has the highest UD score compared with those for the kitchen and the bedroom. The older adults spend most of their time in the living room and the kitchen. A low UD score (e.g. kitchen and bedroom) is associated with a higher number of falls but not with low levels of safety perception and use of space. The article concludes with suggestions to improve housing safety of Hasselgarden’s senior housing, which may also help prevent falls in the older population elsewhere.

The aim of this study was to determine the factors that go into a highly reliable estimate of radon exposure levels for use in setting up the case-control study. To this end, the present study conducted a multi-faceted investigation of the distribution of radon concentrations in the bedrooms and living rooms of 400 households in the target areas during the winter months from December 2014 to February 2015. We determined that taking the mean value of the radon concentration levels detected in the bedroom and living room as the representative value of residential concentration is appropriate, given the usability of previous research data and the difference in the concentration levels between the two. In terms of detector placement, we found that detectors should not inconvenience residents or be affected by an air current. Further, we found that housing type should distinguish between regular housing (single-detached, row, and multiplex housing) and apartments but that the building type was not a key factor in the assessment of radon exposure levels. Houses should be classified into those constructed with soil (red clay) and those with constructed with general building materials for the assessment of radon exposure levels.

To assess the association of indoor environmental risk factors with respiratory function among adults in an acid rain-plagued city in China where coal use is frequent. The subjects were randomly selected in the winter season. Information on selected home environmental factors was collected through administered questionnaires. Additionally, pulmonary function tests, including Forced Vital Capacity (FVC), Forced Expiratory Volume in 1 s (FEV1), FEV1/FVC and Peak Expiratory Flow Rate (PEFR) were also performed in participants. This study showed that, among a variety of risk factors, coal fuel use, cooking oil fumes and active and passive smoking exposure together with asthma in childhood were important factors for deterioration of pulmonary function among adults in the winter season (p < 0.05). Additionally, subjects whose kitchen was located in the living room or bedroom, who opened their windows only occasionally or never, who noted the presence of cooking oil fumes and pests, whose bedroom was shared by 3 or more residents and who kept pets tended to exhibit lower values of FVC, FEV1 and PEFR values compared with non-exposed counterparts (p < 0.05). This study demonstrated impaired pulmonary function among adults who were exposed to indoor risk factors, such as coal fires and cigarette smoking compared to non-users in the winter season and emphasizes the need for public health efforts to decrease exposure to indoor air pollution.

Background Unintentional child poisoning represents a significant public health problem across the globe, placing a substantial burden on health services emergency departments. Around the world, every year, thousands of children die as a result of physical injuries, most of which involve children under 5 years old. Medicines are the main products involved in poisoning, and children under 5 years old are the most vulnerable age group. The objective of this study was to measure the prevalence of unsafe storage of medicines in households with a 4-year-old child. Methods We used data from the follow-up of 4-year-old in the 2004 Pelotas Birth Cohort Study in Brazil (N = 3799). “Unsafe storage” was considered present when medicines were stored unlocked and within reach of children (at a height below the eye level of the average adult). Independent variables included maternal and family socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the child’s health care. All information was collected during household interviews with the mothers using a standardized questionnaire. The overall prevalence rate with a 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and the prevalence associated with various independent variables were determined. Results The storage of medicines in unlocked areas was reported by 80.9% of the mothers, and, within reach of children for 26.5%. The overall prevalence rate of unsafe storage of medicines was 21.4% (20.1–22.7%). The main storage locations used were the kitchen (57.0%) and bedroom (53.3%). Conclusions The results indicate that medicines were unsafely stored in a 21.4% number of homes, which can contribute to the vulnerability of children to poisoning from medicines. To minimize this risk, education about the safe storage of medicines should be reinforced by health professionals.

This article explores how the Removal of the Spare Room Subsidy policy, commonly known as the Bedroom Tax, works materially and discursively to create certain types of individuals and families as valued and deserving, while portraying others as excessive, wasteful or discretionary. The paper draws on a qualitative study project (Bragg et al., 2015) which generated accounts from 14 families impacted by the policy, as well as 39 interviews with key workers in local schools, charities and community organisations. Through analysis of official texts (such as the policy text and related debates in Parliament) and interview data, the paper explores how particular gendered understandings of care and kinship are constructed, regulated, penalised, and performed via the Bedroom Tax, and how these impact on the everyday lives of families subject to the subsidy removal, and beyond this also to their neighbours and neighbourhoods.

Indoor air pollution significantly influences personal exposure to air pollution and increases health risks. Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is one of the major air pollutants, and therefore it is important to properly determine indoor concentration of this pollutant considering the fact that people spend most of their time inside. The aim of this study was to assess indoor and outdoor concentration of NO2 during each season; for this purpose, passive sampling was applied. We analyzed homes with gas and electric stoves to determine and compare the concentrations of NO2 in kitchen, living room, and bedroom microenvironments (MEs). The accuracy of passive sampling was evaluated by comparing the sampling results with the data from air quality monitoring stations. The highest indoor concentration of NO2 was observed in kitchen ME during the winter period, the median concentration being 28.4 μg m(-3). Indoor NO2 levels in homes with gas stoves were higher than outdoor levels during all seasons. The concentration of NO2 was by 2.5 times higher in kitchen MEs with gas stoves than with electric stoves. This study showed that the concentration of NO2 in indoor MEs mainly depended on the stove type used in the kitchen. Homes with gas stoves had significantly higher levels of NO2 in all indoor MEs compared with homes where electric stoves were used.

The present work reports the variation of 31 carbonyl compounds (CC) in an apartment located at Niterói City, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil. Eight sampling campaigns were conducted through a 1-year period, and three areas (living room, kitchen, and bedroom) were evaluated before, during, and after the renovation activities and reoccupation of the apartment. Samples were collected using SEP-PAK cartridges impregnated with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine, and the hydrazones were analyzed using rapid resolution liquid chromatography with UV detection. The lowest total concentration of CC (19.0 ± 1.5 μg m(-3)) was found before the renovation when the apartment was empty, but door varnishing resulted in highest contamination of the apartment (1386 ± 384 μg m(-3)); however, an important dispersion of CC was observed in the subsequent sampling (148 ± 1.8 μg m(-3)). After apartment reoccupation, the indoor contamination seemed to depend on the routine activities taken there, such as household product use and cooking activities, but apparently, local temperature increase favored the vaporization of the volatile CC from the building materials in the apartment. As far as we are concerned, this is the first study comparing the concentrations of 31 CC in residential areas before, during, and after renovation activities taken in Brazil.

Background: Little is known about the real everyday exposure of children in Europe to extremely low frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF). This study's aims are to i) assess personal ELF-MF exposure in children; ii) to identify factors determining personal and bedroom ELF-MF exposure measurements in children; iii) to evaluate the reproducibility of exposure summary measures; and iv) to compare personal with bedroom measurements. Methods: In Switzerland and Italy 172 children aged between 5 - 13 years were equipped with ELF-MF measurement devices (EMDEX II, measuring 40-800 Hz) during approx. 48 hours twice, in the warm and the cold season. Additionally 24h measurements were taken in the children's bedroom. Results: In our study sample geometric mean ELF-MF exposure was 0.04 µT for personal and 0.05 µT for bedroom measurements. Living within 100 m of a highest voltage power line increased geometric mean personal exposure by a factor of 3.3 and bedroom measurements by a factor 6.8 compared to a control group. Repeated measurements within the same subject showed high reproducibility for the geometric mean (Spearman correlation 0.78 for personal and 0.86 for bedroom measurements) but less for the 95th and 99th percentile of the personal measurements (

The aim of the study was to elucidate an influence of artificial dusk on sleep of healthy sleepers. Twenty-six participants with a normal 5–6-day weekly active schedule, sleeping single in bedroom and naive to the primary aim of the study, completed two consecutive arms, each consisting of 7 days baseline, 13 days intervention, and 8 days follow-up. The intervention was dawn and dusk simulation (dusk) compared to dawn and a rectangular light–dark switch prior to sleep time (lights off). The 30-min dusk signal was preceded by 10 min of constant light to be similar in the overall light dose to the 17-min lights off signal. Throughout the study, subjects filled out a sleep diary immediately before and after sleep and wore actiwatches. Saliva for melatonin ELISA and circadian phase estimation was sampled prior to bedtime at home on days 7 or 8, 13 or 14 and 20 of each arm. Circadian phase remained unchanged throughout the study. Of the thirteen variables analysed, only one showed a difference: the number of minutes with movements during the first 40 min of the sleep episode was lower after dusk presentation compared to both lights off presentation and pre- and post-dusk days (P

The current study examines cultural explanations regarding sleep paralysis (SP) in Italy. The study explores (1) whether the phenomenology of SP generates culturally specific interpretations and causal explanations and (2) what are the beliefs and local traditions associated with such cultural explanations. The participants were Italian nationals from the general population (n = 68) recruited in the region of Abruzzo, Italy. All participants had experienced at least one lifetime episode of SP. The sleep paralysis experiences and phenomenology questionnaire were orally administered to participants. We found a multilayered cultural interpretation of SP, namely the Pandafeche attack, associated with various supernatural beliefs. Thirty-eight percent of participants believed that this supernatural being, the Pandafeche-often referred to as an evil witch, sometimes as a ghost-like spirit or a terrifying humanoid cat-might have caused their SP. Twenty-four percent of all participants sensed the Pandafeche was present during their SP. Strategies to prevent Pandafeche attack included sleeping in supine position, placing a broom by the bedroom door, or putting a pile of sand by the bed. Case studies are presented to illustrate the study findings. The Pandafeche attack thus constitutes a culturally specific, supernatural interpretation of the phenomenology of SP in the Abruzzo region of Italy.

Children use electronic screens at ever younger ages, but there is still little empirical research on how and why parents mediate this media use. In line with Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development, we explored whether children’s media skills and media activities, next to parents’ attitudes about media for children, and several child and parent-family characteristics, predicted parental mediation practices. Furthermore, we investigated children’s use and ownership of electronic screens in the bedroom in relationship to the child’s media skills. Data from an online survey among 896 Dutch parents with young children (0–7 years) showed that children’s use and ownership of TV, game consoles, computers and touchscreens, primarily depended on their media skills and age, not on parent’s attitudes about media for children. Only touchscreens were used more often by children, when parents perceived media as helpful in providing moments of rest for the child. In line with former studies, parents consistently applied co-use, supervision, active mediation, restrictive mediation, and monitoring, depending on positive and negative attitudes about media. The child’s media skills and media activities, however, had stronger relationships with parental mediation styles, whereas age was not related. Canonical discriminant analysis, finally, captured how the five mediation strategies varied among infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and early childhood children, predominantly as a result of children’s media skills, and media activities, i.e., playing educational games and passive entertainment use.

A good indoor thermal climate is important. To reduce energy demands for space heating, individual metering and billing (IMB) for space heating costs is common, though not yet in Sweden. To obtain a better picture of the thermal climate conditions, the distribution of the measured indoor temperatures was investigated in each apartment in 14 apartment blocks with a total of 419 apartments. All blocks had an IMB system for space heating with a traditional feed-forward control. In the studied buildings, temperatures were measured in each living room and each bedroom, and were registered at 2.1 m over floor level, every 15 min over a period of 12 months. Seasonal mean temperatures, standard deviations, skewness, and kurtosis are presented for apartment blocks. For one, with 75 apartments, these values are monthly, and for January and April, the temperature range for each apartment is presented in boxplots. It can be concluded that there are variations in temperature between different apartments: both variations in temperature levels and in temperature ranges. The overall conclusions are that differences in indoor temperature are achievable for different apartments in an apartment block with a certain set point temperature and that the temperatures are not dependent on an apartment’s location in the building. Both the building owner’s goal to keep a certain average temperature for energy saving reasons, and the tenants’ goals, possibility to vary the indoor temperature at individual apartment level, seems to be possible to reach. The measured temperatures are close to being normally distributed, though they have a mild negative skewness and a mild kurtosis during heating periods. The results support that indoor temperatures can be modeled as normally distributed in energy simulations of buildings. Further, it can be seen that temperature variations follow the seasons. The temperatures on individual apartment level show that there is a tendency for warm apartments to be warm all the year round and vice versa. There are also daily variations, with a magnitude of 0.3–0.4 °C and with 0.1–0.3 °C difference between weekdays and weekends. Every single indoor temperature measurement for a whole year covering all seasons as a function of outdoor temperature is presented in iso-plots. Temperature levels are mainly within the limits of standards for thermal comfort, thus showing that a thermal satisfying indoor climate is met in these apartment blocks with IMB. It also seems that it was possible to achieve the desired temperatures irrespective of the apartment’s location.

A good sleep is important for a healthy life. Recently, several consumer sleep devices have emerged on the market claiming that they can provide personal sleep monitoring; however, many of them require additional hardware or there is a lack of scientific evidence regarding their reliability. In this paper we proposed a novel method to assess the sleep quality through sound events recorded in the bedroom. We used subjective sleep quality as training label, combined several machine learning approaches including kernelized self organizing map, hierarchical clustering and hidden Markov model, obtained the models to indicate the sleep pattern of specific quality level. The proposed method is different from traditional sleep stage based method, provides a new aspect of sleep monitoring that sound events are directly correlated with the sleep of a person.

The prevalence of asthma in Taiwan is one of the highest in Asia. Mold exposures have been linked to the development and exacerbation of asthma. A pilot study of mold populations in homes in Taipei, Taiwan, was conducted in the spring of 2014. Dust and air samples were collected from five homes with an asthmatic child and five from control homes. A combined, settled-dust sample was collected in the living room and bedroom in each home using a Swiffer™ cloth. The dust (5 mg) was analyzed for 36 molds using a DNA-based analysis, mold-specific quantitative PCR, and mold contamination was estimated using the Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) metric. The ERMI values were significantly (p = 0.03) greater in the homes of asthmatic children compared to the control homes, average 26.2 versus 17.4, respectively. Aspergillus ochraceus was found in significantly greater numbers in homes of asthmatic children compared to control homes. Air samples were collected in each home for 2 min (total 63 l of air) using the Burkard portable air sampler for agar plates fitted with malt extract agar plates. The plates were incubated at 25 °C for 5 days, and the resulting mold colonies were enumerated. Significantly higher total numbers of molds were cultured from the air in homes of asthmatics compared to control homes. Although this is a pilot study, it suggests that asthmatic children in Taipei, Taiwan, live in homes with significantly greater exposures to molds.

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether the number and type of electronic screens available in children’s bedrooms matter in their relationship to adiposity, physical activity and sleep. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 502 children aged 9-11 years from Ottawa, Ontario. The presence (yes/no) of a television (TV), computer or video game system in the child’s bedroom was reported by the parents. Percentage body fat was measured using bioelectrical impedance. An accelerometer was worn over seven days to assess moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), total sedentary time, sleep duration and sleep efficiency. Screen time was self-reported by the child. RESULTS: After adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, annual household income and highest level of parental education, children with 2-3 screens in their bedroom had a significantly higher percentage of body fat than children with no screen in their bedroom. However, while children with 2-3 screens in their bedroom engaged in more screen time overall than those with no screen, total sedentary time and MVPA were not significantly different. Sleep duration was not related to the number of screens in the bedroom, but sleep efficiency was significantly lower in children with at least 2 screens in the bedroom. Finally, children having only a TV in their bedroom had significantly higher adiposity than those having no screen at all. In contrast, the presence of a computer in children’s bedrooms was not associated with higher adiposity than that of children with no screen. CONCLUSIONS: A higher number of screens in a child’s bedroom was associated with higher adiposity, more total screen time and lower sleep efficiency. Having a TV in the bedroom appears to be the type of screen presence associated with higher levels of adiposity. Given the popularity of screens among children, these findings are increasingly relevant to health promotion strategies.

We conducted an epidemiological study to examine the associations between sleep environments and sleep habits in Japanese adolescents. The targets were students attending junior and senior high schools throughout Japan. Sample schools were selected by cluster sampling. Self-reported anonymous questionnaires were then sent to the schools for all students to complete. A total of 99 416 adolescents responded, with an overall response rate of 64.0%. A total of 96 861 questionnaires were subjected to analysis. Associations between sleep environments (type of bed, lighting during sleep, sharing a bedroom) and sleep duration, bedtimes, wake-up times, sleep quality, or symptoms of insomnia were examined. In total, 65.5% of the adolescents surveyed slept on a bed, and 33.0% slept on a futon laid on the floor or tatami. In total, 66.6% slept with the light off, 31.0% slept with a dim light on, and 2.0% slept with the light on. Of those surveyed, 69.3% had their own bedrooms, 17.1% shared a bedroom with one other person, 8.0% shared a bedroom with three people, and 5.0% shared a bedroom with four people or more. The factors with high odds ratios with regard to insomnia were use of a futon laid on the floor or tatami, sleeping with the light on, and not sharing a bedroom. Sleep environments are associated with insomnia. Type of bed, lighting, and sharing a bedroom should be considered as factors that affect the sleep of adolescents.

This study compared sleep patterns of high school students in 1999 and 2008. In 2006, school start times were delayed for senior students (years 12–13) from 09:00 to 10:30. For junior students (years 92–11), start time remained unchanged at 09:00. Questionnaires were completed at school by 212 year 9 and 12 students in 1999, and 455 year 9, 11 and 12 students in 2008. Year 12 students in 2008 were less likely to report sleep loss on school nights (OR = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.01–0.11) and were less sleepy (OR = 0.58, 95% CI = 0.342–0.98) than Year 12 in 1999 or than Year 11 in 2008, after controlling for gender (sleep loss, OR = 0.31, 95%CI = 0.19–0.53; sleepiness, OR = 0.46, 95% CI = 0.28–0.75). There were no comparable changes for Year 9 students. From 19992–2008, students having technologies in the bedroom rose from 80.7% to 96.4% (P(cχ2) < 0.001). In 2008, having more technologies was associated with less sleep on school nights (Spearman’s rho P = 0.005). In 2008, Year 9 students with more technologies were more likely to report daytime sleepiness (OR = 4.06, 95% CI = 1.44-2-2-11.41) and being evening type (OR = 3.38, 95% CI = 1.272–9.01), after controlling for gender. In 2008 all year groups went to bed earlier than in 1999, possibly due to increased sleep awareness, but only Year 12 students sleep later on school mornings. We conclude that delaying school start time had beneficial effects for Year 12 students, reducing sleep loss on school nights and daytime sleepiness. However, increased presence of technologies is associated with later sleep times and daytime sleepiness among Year 9 students.

The main objective of this study is to assess the health hazard due to the indoor radon. Measurement studies have been carried out in 56 dwellings belonging to 14 residential areas in Alexandria city, Egypt. Results are obtained using the LR-115 (Type II) alpha track detector in "closed-can" geometry. The dosimeters were installed in bedroom, living room, and the kitchens of each house. For intercomparison purpose, dosimeters are installed in basements, ground floor, and first floor. Measured indoor radon concentrations were found to vary from 15 to 132 Bq m(-3). The average radon concentrations in living room, bedrooms, and kitchen in basements were found to vary from to be 39 ± 10, 63 ± 15 and 81 ± 25 Bq m(-3), respectively. In living room, bedrooms, and kitchen, on ground floor, the average radon concentrations were found to be 35 ± 9, 44 ± 6 and 56 ± 10 Bq m(-3), whereas on first floor, the average values are 29 ± 8, 34 ± 7 and 45 ± 8 Bq m(-3), respectively. The overall mean radon concentration in all surveyed districts has been found to be 44 ± 16 Bq m(-3). The mean annual estimated effective dose received by the residents of the studied area is estimated to be 0.75 mSv. The obtained results are compared with the indoor radon levels prescribed by the International Commission on Radiation Protection and are found to be less than the action level recommended.

Ecological observations were made on house dust mites of Kolkata as they form a major part of synanthropic mite community. Dust samples were collected with regard to the abundance of mite in relation to certain socio-ecological parameters like, habitat preference, location of house, construction pattern of house, types of mattresses used and the frequency of cleaning of mattresses. Among two different habitats examined, bed dust contained significantly higher mite population (p

The total concentration and size distribution of bioaerosols in three different types of housing (single room in shared accommodation [type I], single bedroom flat in three-storey building [type II] and two- or three-bedroom detached houses [type III]) was assessed during the winter. This research was an extension of a previous study carried out in the summer. The measurement campaign was undertaken in winter 2008 and 30 houses were sampled. Samples were taken from kitchens, living rooms, corridors (only in housing type I) and outdoors with an Anderson 6 stage viable impactor. In housing type I, the total geometric mean concentration was highest in the corridor for both bacteria and fungi (3,171 and 1,281 CFU/m3, respectively). In type II residences, both culturable bacteria and fungi were greatest in the living rooms (3,487 and 833 CFU/m3, respectively). The living rooms in type III residences had largest number of culturable bacteria (1,361 CFU/m3) while fungi were highest in kitchens (280 CFU/m3). The concentrations of culturable bacteria and fungi were greater in mouldy houses than non-mouldy houses. A considerable variation was seen in the size distribution of culturable bacteria in type I residences compared to types II and III. For all housing types more than half of culturable bacterial and fungal aerosol were respirable (

This paper describes experimental investigations on fire service ventilation practices in modern house geometries. Two houses were constructed inside a large fire facility. The first of two houses constructed was a one-story, 111.5 m2, 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with 8 total rooms. The second house was a two-story 297.3 m2, 4 bedroom, 2.5 bathroom house with 12 total rooms. The second house featured a modern open floor plan, two-story great room and open foyer. Fifteen experiments were conducted varying the ventilation locations and the number of ventilation openings. Ventilation scenarios included ventilating the front door only, opening the front door and a window near and remote from the seat of the fire, opening a window only and ventilating a higher opening in the two-story house. One scenario in each house was conducted in triplicate to examine repeatability. The results of these experiments examine potential occupant tenability and provide knowledge for the fire service for them to examine their horizontal ventilation standard operating procedures and training content. The fire dynamics resulting from ventilation practices such as ventilation near or remote from the seat of the fire and high versus low in relation to the fire are examined. Several other tactical considerations were developed utilizing the data from these experiments to provide specific examples of changes that can be adopted based on a departments current strategies and tactics. Such tactical considerations and a systems approach to fire service tactics should be investigated further.

Understanding parents’ perceptions of their young children’s viewing behaviors and environments is critical to the development of effective television reduction interventions. To explore parents’ attitudes, perceptions, and experiences regarding their children’s television viewing and the use of televisions in their children’s bedrooms, we conducted focus groups with 74 racial/ethnic minority parents of children aged birth to 5 years. We analyzed transcripts of the focus group discussions using immersion-crystallization. Over 50 % of parents reported that their children watch more than 2 h of television per day and 64 % reported that their children have a television in their bedrooms. In general, parents were unconcerned about the amount of television their children watched. However, parents did express concern about the content of their children’s viewing. Discussion of potential harmful effects of television viewing focused mainly on the impact television viewing may have on children’s behavior and academic outcomes and only rarely on a concern about weight. Most parents were unaware of adverse consequences associated with children having a television in their bedroom and many reported that having a television in their child’s bedroom helped keep their child occupied. To effectively engage parents of young children, television reduction interventions should include messages that address parents’ key concerns regarding their children’s viewing and should provide parents with alternative activities to keep children occupied.

This paper presents a video-based sleep monitoring system for real-life bedroom environments. We envision a smart living space with ambient intelligence components to record and monitor sleep in a non-invasive manner. We will describe the overall structure of the proposed system. Special emphasis, however, will be put on the formulation of a robust background modeling technique as the brightness in a real bedroom environment will change gradually at dawn, which creates a severe problem in video-based systems. To address the issue, we have demonstrated how to model brightness changes during morning hours. We have also investigated various texture-based background modeling techniques, including local binary/ternary patterns, to handle lighting changes at dawn in smooth regions for robust long-term monitoring. Comparative analyses have been carried out to examine the efficacy of different background modeling approaches on the sleep monitoring system.

The indoor total volatile organic compound (TVOC) concentrations and their relationship to potential influencing factors were evaluated. Samples (n = 2302) were collected from 2007 to 2009 both in old structures and new construction in the city of Hangzhou from bedrooms, sitting rooms and studies that had been decorated within the previous year. The average TVOC concentration in all the newly decorated rooms was 0.65±0.69 mg/m3. 35.8% of samples exceeded the China standard. Over the past 3 years, the TVOC concentration decreased and then increased (P study>bedroom. The characteristics of the TVOC source were a key factor influencing the TVOC concentration. In addition, the TVOC concentration was also (P < 0.05) related to the temperature, humidity, time from the end of decoration to sampling (DR), and the amount of time windows and doors were closed before sampling (DC). The temperature and humidity were less important than the DR and DC. A model to relate the TVOC concentration to the five factors (temperature, humidity, source, DR, and DC) was established based on 288 samples (R2 = 0.83). The model illustrated that the time for the TVOC concentration to meet the China standard was different for the various rooms, and when the other factors were fixed, the impact of DC (t1) on the TVOC concentration could be quantified as (((t1+1)/2)0.212−1)×100%.

In an effort to address residential energy needs and find ways to improve energy utilization of homes, heating and passive cooling was examined by using computational fluid dynamics. The Esherick House, whose spatial composition was intentionally designed for natural ventilation, was modeled and simulated for different environmental conditions. The simulations were used to examine spatial layout effects on the ability of natural ventilation to maintain a comfortable thermal environment. Results for the heating and passive cooling scenarios compared the effects of the temperature and velocity fields when the environmental conditions were changed. For a typical summer day, it was found that the entire house cooled quickly when a breeze was modeled to enter a few windows, both with and without solar heating. The heating scenario for a winter day modeled the two fireplaces, one located on the first floor in the great room and one on the second floor in the master bedroom. It was found that the temperatures on the second floor were too high and too low on the first floor for acceptable levels of thermal comfort.

Synanthropic acarine populations, especially house dust mites are considered as a major source of allergen responsible for different allergic manifestations. Considering the manifold importance of synanthropic mites, knowledge on the seasonal population structure of this mite fauna is of primary importance for the better understanding of the disease prevalence and pathogenesis. However, very little is known on the seasonal population structure of this ecologically well defined group of mites in Indian context. In the present communication, ecological observations on the seasonal population structure of this group of mites were made with special reference to house dust mites which forms a major component of synanthropic mite community. To fulfill the objective, bedroom floor dust were collected and processed from 60 selected houses in and around Kolkata metropolitan areas during four distinct seasons (winter, spring, summer and autumn) for two consecutive years. Floor dust were collected by sweeping the floor and brought to the laboratory in polythene packet for further analysis. On analyzing the season-wise data, it was noted that the average number of total mite was highest in summer and lowest in spring; Pyroglyphids were highest in summer and lowest in winter; Glycyphagids were highest in autumn and lowest in spring. The study indicates that a temperature of 25–30°C and relative humidity between 65 and 75% were optimum for the successful growth and multiplication of these mites.

The authors suspected that the contemporary quantified daylight control on window design is insufficient to satisfy the user expectation in Hong Kong. A survey was carried out from December 2007 to June 2008 to study the human–window interactions in high-rise residential buildings in Hong Kong. The result indicated that daylighting is not the dominant factor for domestic window design because of Hong Kong's sociocultural context; other factors such as dining habit, toilet hygiene, views from living room and privacy for bedroom proved to be more important in the users’ perception. This suggested that the current statutory control may not fulfill or match user expectations. Thus, the window design framework should be a qualitative approach with the understanding of space function and user behavior in the sociocultural context in order to provide for a better living environment.

An investigation using recall questionnaires was conducted in winter and autumn 2006 to evaluate the time-activity patterns in Chongqing, China. The average time spent in seven microenvironments (MEs) including outdoors, transit, living room, bedroom, kitchen, classroom/office, and other indoors were found to be about 3.5, 1.1, 2.5, 9.7, 1.4, 4.2, and 1.7 h per day, respectively. According to the results of a nonparametric test, the sampling period and day of week were significant for the variation of the time spent in all MEs except for transit and outdoors. The time budget was analyzed using a general linear model (GLM), which exhibited significant variability by demographic factors such as gender, age, residence, education, and household income.

During the past few decades, house dust mites have attracted worldwide interest among medical entomologists and acarologists because of their importance in causing nasobronchial allergic disorders in human beings. House dust mites are present throughout the year; however, their relative densities differ in different seasons and habitats. Because the prevalence of house dust mite allergen is important epidemiologically and clinically, detailed knowledge on the seasonal abundance of important allergenic mites is of great importance for better understanding of the pathogenesis of the disease. In view of this, a systematic survey was carried out on the prevalence of total mites and four common allergenic mites in the city of Kolkata for two consecutive years. Both bed and bedroom floor dust were collected separately from homes inhabited by asthmatic patients situated in different corners of the city on monthly basis from January 2004 to December 2005. The population levels of total mites and four common allergenic mites, namely Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus, D. farinae, Austroglycyphagus geniculatus, and Blomia tropicalis separately, were highest during the pre-monsoon period (March–May), irrespective of habitat, whereas densities were low in all cases during winter (December–February). The study indicates that season had the most significant effect on the relative abundance of house dust mites except Dermatophagoides farinae, irrespective of habitat.

This study examined the long-term effects of a brief behavioral intervention for sleep improvement. The program was designed as a complete self-help approach by correspondence, and consisted of self-assessments of sleep-related behavior, target-setting for behavior change, an educational booklet, self-monitoring of the behaviors for one month and reinforcement. The participants of the program at a Japanese worksite replied for a one-year followed up survey. Forty-seven poor sleepers whose sleep onset latency was 30 min or more and/or sleep efficiency was less than 85% were analyzed. Eight sleep parameters and nine sleep-related behaviors were evaluated using questionnaires at baseline, post-intervention and follow-up. At one year, total sleep time increased by 27 min, sleep onset latency shortened by 17.5 min and sleep efficiency improved by 6.9 points. Desirable changes were obtained in 4 sleep-related behavior including not being active before bedtime, not working or watching TV in the bedroom, not oversleeping on holidays and having a relaxed bath time. These results suggest that this brief behavioral intervention could improve sleep quality through the modification of sleep-related behavior.

We conducted this study to compare environmental exposures in suburban homes of children with asthma to exposures in inner city homes of children with asthma, to better understand important differences of indoor pollutant exposure that might contribute to increased asthma morbidity in the inner city. Indoor PM(10), PM(2.5), NO(2), O(3), and airborne and dust allergen levels were measured in the homes of 120 children with asthma, 100 living in inner city Baltimore and 20 living in the surrounding counties. Home conditions and health outcome measures were also compared. The inner city and suburban homes differed in ways that might affect airborne environmental exposures. The inner city homes had more cigarette smoking (67% vs. 5%, p.001), signs of disrepair (77% vs. 5%, p.001), and cockroach (64% vs. 0%, p.001) and mouse (80% vs. 5%, p.001) infestation. The inner city homes had higher geometric mean (GM) levels (p.001) of PM(10) (47 vs. 18 microg/m(3)), PM(2.5) (34 vs. 8.7 microg/m(3)), NO(2) [19 ppb vs. below detection (BD)], and O(3) (1.9 vs. .015 ppb) than suburban homes. The inner city homes had lower GM bedroom dust allergen levels of dust mite (.29 vs. 1.2 microg/g, p = .022), dog (.38 vs. 5.5 microg/g, p.001) and cat (.75 vs. 2.4 microg/g, p = .039), but higher levels of mouse (3.2 vs. .013 microg/g, p.001) and cockroach (4.5 vs. .42 U/g, p.001). The inner city homes also had higher GM airborne mouse allergen levels (.055 vs. .016 ng/m(3), p = .002). Compared with the homes of suburban children with asthma, the homes of inner city Baltimore children with asthma had higher levels of airborne pollutants and home characteristics that predispose to greater asthma morbidity.

There is growing evidence linking poor housing conditions and respiratory diseases, including asthma. The association between housing conditions and asthma in the inner city has been attributed in part to cockroach and mouse infestation and the resulting allergen exposures. Multiple social and behavioral factors can influence environmental exposures and health conditions, necessitating a thorough examination of such factors. As part of the Healthy Public Housing Initiative, we evaluated the association between physical and household characteristics and pest-related allergen levels in three public housing developments in Boston, MA. We detected cockroach allergens (Bla g 1 and Bla g 2) in bedroom air, bed, and especially high concentrations in kitchen samples. In multivariate Tobit regressions controlling for development and season, clutter and lack of cleanliness in the apartment were associated with a tenfold increase in Bla g 1 concentration in the air, a sevenfold increase in Bla g 1 and an eightfold increase in Bla g 2 concentrations in the bed, and an 11-fold increase in Bla g 2 in the kitchen (p

Background Television (TV) viewing has been associated with many undesirable outcomes for children, such as increased risk of obesity, but TV viewing can also have benefits. Although restrictive parenting practices are effective in reducing children’s TV viewing, not all parents use them and it is currently unclear why. The current study examined parenting practices related to TV viewing in the context of social- cognitive theory. Specifically, we hypothesized that positive and negative Parental Outcome Expectations for child’s TV Viewing (POETV) would be associated with social co-viewing and restrictive parenting practices, and that POETV and parenting practices influence the amount of TV viewed by child. Method Data were collected from an internet survey of 287 multi-ethnic parents and their 6–12 year old children on participants’ sociodemographic information, parenting practices related to TV use, POETV, and parent and child TV viewing. Path analysis was used to examine the relationship amongst variables in separate models for weekday and weekend TV viewing. controlling for child age, household education, and parental TV viewing. Results The results provided partial support for the hypotheses, with notable differences between weekday and weekend viewing. The models explained 13.6 % and 23.4 % of the variance in children’s TV viewing on weekdays and weekends respectively. Neither positive nor negative POETV were associated with restrictive TV parenting in either model. One subscale each from positive and negative POETV were associated with social co-viewing parenting on both weekends and weekdays in the expected direction. Restrictive parenting practices were directly negatively associated with children’s TV viewing on weekdays, but not weekends. Social co-viewing parenting was directly positively associated with children’s TV viewing on weekends, but not weekdays. The strongest influence on children’s TV viewing was having a TV in the child’s bedroom. Negative POETV was weakly associated with having a TV in the child’s room. Conclusions These findings suggest that POETV and parenting may have a greater impact on weekend TV viewing, when children tend to watch more TV, than weekday. The models suggest that POETV, parenting and especially removing the TV from children’s rooms may be promising targets for interventions.