Household Environments and Cognitive Decline Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in China: Exploring Gender, Age, and Residential Variations.

This study examined the relationship between household environments and trajectories of cognitive function among middle-aged and older adults in China and its urban/rural, gender, and age variations. We estimated multi-level linear growth curve models using a representative sample of 16,111 respondents aged 45 years and over from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2018). Older people who lived with a spouse, but not with children, and those with higher living expenditures, better housing quality, and indoor clean fuels for cooking had a slower cognitive decline. Living arrangement more strongly predicted men's cognitive decline, while living expenditure, solid fuel use, and housing quality significantly predicted only women's cognitive decline. Only for older adults and rural residents, those living alone had significantly faster cognitive decline than those living with a spouse only. These findings underscore the importance of improving the living conditions of older adults to help alleviate their cognitive decline.

The Importance of Including Non-Household Environments in Dengue Vector Control Activities.

Most vector control activities in urban areas are focused on household environments; however, information relating to infection risks in spaces other than households is poor, and the relative risk that these spaces represent has not yet been fully understood. We used data-driven simulations to investigate the importance of household and non-household environments for dengue entomological risk in two Kenyan cities where dengue circulation has been reported. Fieldwork was performed using four strategies that targeted different stages of mosquitoes: ovitraps, larval collections, Prokopack aspiration, and BG-sentinel traps. Data were analyzed separately between household and non-household environments to assess mosquito presence, the number of vectors collected, and the risk factors for vector presence. With these data, we simulated vector and human populations to estimate the parameter m and mosquito-to-human density in both household and non-household environments. Among the analyzed variables, the main difference was found in mosquito abundance, which was consistently higher in non-household environments in Kisumu but was similar in Ukunda. Risk factor analysis suggests that small, clean water-related containers serve as mosquito breeding places in households as opposed to the trash- and rainfall-related containers found in non-household structures. We found that the density of vectors (m) was higher in non-household than household environments in Kisumu and was also similar or slightly lower between both environments in Ukunda. These results suggest that because vectors are abundant, there is a potential risk of transmission in non-household environments; hence, vector control activities should take these spaces into account.