↓ Skip to main content

Chronic respiratory disease among the elderly in South Africa: any association with proximity to mine dumps?

Overview of attention for article published in Environmental Health, April 2015
Altmetric Badge

About this Attention Score

  • In the top 25% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (86th percentile)
  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (62nd percentile)

Mentioned by

news
1 news outlet
twitter
2 X users

Citations

dimensions_citation
45 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
130 Mendeley
You are seeing a free-to-access but limited selection of the activity Altmetric has collected about this research output. Click here to find out more.
Title
Chronic respiratory disease among the elderly in South Africa: any association with proximity to mine dumps?
Published in
Environmental Health, April 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12940-015-0018-7
Pubmed ID
Authors

Vusumuzi Nkosi, Janine Wichmann, Kuku Voyi

Abstract

There is increasing evidence that environmental factors such as air pollution from mine dumps, increase the risk of chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between proximity to mine dumps and prevalence of chronic respiratory disease in people aged 55 years and older. Elderly persons in communities 1-2 km (exposed) and 5 km (unexposed), from five pre-selected mine dumps in Gauteng and North West Province, in South Africa were included in a cross-sectional study. Structured interviews were conducted with 2397 elderly people, using a previously validated ATS-DLD-78 questionnaire from the British Medical Research Council. Exposed elderly persons had a significantly higher prevalence of chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases than those who were unexposed., Results from the multiple logistic regression analysis indicated that living close to mine dumps was significantly associated with asthma (OR = 1.57; 95% CI: 1.20 - 2.05), chronic bronchitis (OR = 1.74; 95 CI: 1.25 - 2.39), chronic cough (OR = 2.02; 95% CI: 1.58 - 2.57), emphysema (OR = 1.75; 95% CI: 1.11 - 2.77), pneumonia (OR = 1.38; 95% CI: 1.07 - 1.77) and wheeze (OR = 2.01; 95% CI: 1.73 - 2.54). Residing in exposed communities, current smoking, ex-smoking, use of paraffin as main residential cooking/heating fuel and low level of education emerged as independent significant risk factors for chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases. This study suggests that there is a high level of chronic respiratory symptoms and diseases among elderly people in communities located near to mine dumps in South Africa.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 2 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 130 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 130 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 21 16%
Researcher 20 15%
Student > Postgraduate 8 6%
Student > Ph. D. Student 8 6%
Lecturer 6 5%
Other 22 17%
Unknown 45 35%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 19 15%
Environmental Science 17 13%
Nursing and Health Professions 13 10%
Engineering 8 6%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 3%
Other 24 18%
Unknown 45 35%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 07 February 2022.
All research outputs
#2,499,370
of 23,072,295 outputs
Outputs from Environmental Health
#463
of 1,510 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#34,134
of 264,714 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Environmental Health
#10
of 27 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,072,295 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 88th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,510 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 32.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 264,714 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 86% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 27 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.