Developing a National-Scale Exposure Index for Combined Environmental Hazards and Social Stressors and Applications to the Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes (Echo) Cohort

Bibliographic Data

ID15467484
AuthorsSheena E Martenies (0000-0001-9206-5132, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, corresponding author), Mingyu Zhang (0000-0003-3628-0983, Johns Hopkins University), Anne E Corrigan (0000-0001-8103-2917, Johns Hopkins University), Anton Kvit (Johns Hopkins University), Timothy Shields (Johns Hopkins University), William Wheaton (RTI International), Deana Around Him (0000-0003-3603-132X, Child Trends), Judy L Aschner (0000-0001-8420-7794, Albert Einstein College of Medicine), Maria M Talavera‐Barber (0000-0002-5290-1375, Avera Health), Emily S Barrett (0000-0001-9463-524X, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey), Theresa M Bastain (0000-0002-0029-5641, University of Southern California), Casper Bendixsen (0000-0002-3419-6940, Marshfield Clinic), Carrie V Breton (0000-0002-6082-4066, University of Southern California), Newell Richard Bush (0000-0003-0217-9975, University of California, San Francisco), F Cacho (0000-0003-1824-935X, Vanderbilt University Medical Center), Carlos A Camargo (0000-0002-1188-5014, Harvard University), Kecia N Carroll (0000-0002-6646-1374, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), Brian S Carter (0000-0003-0539-9164, Children's Mercy Hospital), Andrea E Cassidy‐Bushrow (0000-0001-8272-4448, Henry Ford Health System), Whitney Cowell (0000-0002-1824-3356, New York University), Lisa Croen (0000-0001-7849-9428, Kaiser Permanente), Dana Dabelea (0000-0001-9514-8929, University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus), Cristiane S Duarte (0000-0001-7214-4255, New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute), Anne L Dunlop (0000-0002-5092-8136, Emory University), Todd M Everson (0000-0003-2732-4550, Emory University), Rima Habre (0000-0003-2103-1706, University of Southern California), Tina V Hartert (0000-0001-7470-1166, Vanderbilt University), Jennifer Helderman (Wake Forest University), Alison E Hipwell (0000-0001-7179-1151, University of Pittsburgh), Margaret R Karagas (0000-0002-6398-7362, Dartmouth College), Barry M Lester (Brown University), Kaja Z Lewinn (0000-0002-8245-7279, University of California, San Francisco), Sheryl Magzamen (0000-0002-2874-3530, Colorado State University), Rachel Morello‐frosch (0000-0003-1153-7287, University of California, Berkeley), Thomas G O’connor (0009-0000-4894-9002, University of Rochester Medicine), Amy Padula (0000-0003-1435-4814, University of California, San Francisco), Michael C Petriello (0000-0002-5583-8092, Wayne State University), Sheela Sathyanarayana (0000-0002-1480-0397, University of Washington), Joseph B Stanford (0000-0002-9932-3947, University of Utah), Tracey J Woodruff (0000-0003-3622-1297, University of California, San Francisco), Rosalind J Wright (0000-0002-4262-2807, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai), Amii Kress (0000-0001-8897-3787, Johns Hopkins University)
Year2023
Volume20
Issue14
Pages6339-6339
Publication date2023-07-10
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueInternational Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1661-7827 • E-ISSN: 1660-4601
PublisherMultidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (PUBLISHER • CH)
DOI10.3390/ijerph20146339
PMID37510572
OpenAlexW4383912010
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited25

Tools for assessing multiple exposures across several domains (e.g., physical, chemical, and social) are of growing importance in social and environmental epidemiology because of their value in uncovering disparities and their impact on health outcomes. Here we describe work done within the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)-wide Cohort Study to build a combined exposure index. Our index considered both environmental hazards and social stressors simultaneously with national coverage for a 10-year period. Our goal was to build this index and demonstrate its utility for assessing differences in exposure for pregnancies enrolled in the ECHO-wide Cohort Study. Our unitless combined exposure index, which collapses census-tract level data into a single relative measure of exposure ranging from 0-1 (where higher values indicate higher exposure to hazards), includes indicators for major air pollutants and air toxics, features of the built environment, traffic exposures, and social determinants of health (e.g., lower educational attainment) drawn from existing data sources. We observed temporal and geographic variations in index values, with exposures being highest among participants living in the West and Northeast regions. Pregnant people who identified as Black or Hispanic (of any race) were at higher risk of living in a "high" exposure census tract (defined as an index value above 0.5) relative to those who identified as White or non-Hispanic. Index values were also higher for pregnant people with lower educational attainment. Several recommendations follow from our work, including that environmental and social stressor datasets with higher spatial and temporal resolutions are needed to ensure index-based tools fully capture the total environmental context

Census · Cohort · Cohort study · Educational attainment · Environmental epidemiology · Environmental health · Index (typography · Population · Stressor · Air Quality and Health Impacts · Demography · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Health, Environment, Cognitive Aging · Medicine · Gerontology