[Children environmental health--Polish epidemiological publications in the global literature on the topic].

Abstract

Environmental hazards in children are subject to many research programs and public health priority, also in Poland. Assessment of the publication output in this field can be used to evaluate the level of general scientific activity in epidemiology. "Medline"-based review (topic: environmental exposure) showed that in the examined period the percentage of Polish publications concerning children aged 0-18 years reached 1,67%, and a half of the articles was published in English. Following the period of a visible increase in annual numbers of Polish publications two recent years revealed a marked decrease of the output. Review of the contents showed a number of broad thematic categories: occurrence and risk factors of allergic diseases including asthma, effects of passive smoking, impact of exposure to lead and other metals including biomonitoring, waste site-related exposures, environmental correlates of physical development, risk related to ionizing radiation and electromagnetic fields. Results suggest an average status of Polish activity in the light of global scientific publications, within the analyzed topic. Moreover, Polish publications cover a narrow spectrum of environmental health issues. The review helped to identify a number of problems that could be addressed to improve scientific activity of Polish environmental epidemiology centers. Those are universal and reflect well recognized problems of the current status of the Polish science, in general.