Conducting Environmental Health Research in the Arabian Middle East: Lessons Learned and Opportunities.
Background: The Arabian Gulf nations are undergoing rapid economic development, leading to major shifts in both the traditional lifestyle and the environment. Although the pace of change is brisk, there is a dearth of environmental health research in this region. Objective: We describe challenges an...
| Published in: | Environmental Health Perspectives Vol. 120; no. 5; pp. 632 - 637 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
May2012
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=104445864&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ccm uiTerm: 104445864 longDbName: CINAHL Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: dissinfo: jinfo: jid: 00916765 3B5 jtl: Environmental Health Perspectives issn: 00916765 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2012 vid: 120 iid: 5 pid: 56539 pub: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences place: Research Triangle Park, North Carolina artinfo: ui: 104445864 2011545907 10.1289/ehp.1104031 NLM22356946 104445864 ppf: 632 ppct: 5 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P tig: atl: Conducting Environmental Health Research in the Arabian Middle East: Lessons Learned and Opportunities. aug: au: Yeatts, Karin B. El-Sadig, Mohamed Ali, Habiba I. Al-Maskari, Fatma Campbell, Alan Ng, Shu Wen Reeves, Lisa Chan, Ronna L. Davidson, Christopher A. Funk, William E. Boundy, Maryanne G. Leith, David Popkin, Barry Gibson, Jacqueline MacDonald Rusyn, Ivan Olshan, Andrew F. affil: Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA sug: subj: Environmental Health Epidemiological Research United Arab Emirates Public Health United Arab Emirates Health Status Environmental Exposure Air Pollution Culture Stereotyping Study Design Data Collection Methods Quality Assurance Institutional Review ab: Background: The Arabian Gulf nations are undergoing rapid economic development, leading to major shifts in both the traditional lifestyle and the environment. Although the pace of change is brisk, there is a dearth of environmental health research in this region. Objective: We describe challenges and successes of conducting an environmental epidemiologic study in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Gulf nation in the Middle East, with an interdisciplinary team that includes in-country academic and government collaborators as well as U.S. academic collaborators. Discussion: We present several issues, including study and data collection design, exposure assessment, scheduling and time coordination, quality assurance and quality control, and institutional review board protocols. These topics are considered in a cultural context. Benefits of this research included building linkages among multinational, interdisciplinary team members, generating data for local environmental decision making, and developing local epidemiologic research capacity. The Middle Eastern culture of hospitality greatly benefited the project team. Conclusion: Cultural differences impact multiple aspects of epidemiologic research and should be respectfully addressed. Conducting international population-based environmental research poses many challenges; these challenges can be met successfully with careful planning, cultural knowledge, and flexibility. Lessons learned are applicable to interdisciplinary research all over the world. The research conducted will benefit the environmental and public health agencies of the UAE and provide the nation's leadership with country-specific environmental health data that can be used to protect the public's health in a rapidly changing environment. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Journal Article ougenre: Article language: English refInfo: holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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