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URBAN AIR POLLUTION AND PERSISTENT EARLY LIFE ASTHMA
Impact/Purpose:
The objective of this community-based participatory research project is to evaluate the relationship between early life asthma and traffic-related air pollution. We are examining this question in a case-control study of asthma persisting to school entry, but with onset earlier in life, in children resident in the same home since before age 2. We hypothesized that susceptibility to ambient air pollution will vary based on genotype for GSTM1, GSTP1, NQO1, HO-1, and TNFα, genes involved in the biologic response to oxidant air pollutants. Lifetime exposure will be assessed by calibrating home measurements to the extensive historical exposure assessment from a monitor in each community, which will operate continuously during the lifetime of participants. Community participation in promoting the study to participants and in data collection and interpretation will enhance both the quality of Center research and the environmental action plans for families of children with asthma in ongoing projects of the community partners. A steering committee representing university and community research partners and policy makers will work closely with the Community Outreach and Translation Core (COTC) to provide the scientific basis necessary for developing policy for the more widespread protection of children from the effects of air pollution.
The specific objectives of the research project are to: (1) identify the population for the proposed case-control study; (2) collect information from parents of participants to assess asthma, activity patterns, and risk factors for asthma, using a structured telephone interview, which also will be administered by Community Study Liaisons; (3) assess the relationship between residential exposure to ambient traffic-related air pollutants and asthma among cases and controls, using information from the Exposure Assessment
The objective of this community-based participatory research project is to evaluate the relationship between early life asthma and traffic-related air pollution. We are examining this question in a case-control study of asthma persisting to school entry, but with onset earlier in life, in children resident in the same home since before age 2. We hypothesized that susceptibility to ambient air pollution will vary based on genotype for GSTM1, GSTP1, NQO1, HO-1, and TNFα, genes involved in the biologic response to oxidant air pollutants. Lifetime exposure will be assessed by calibrating home measurements to the extensive historical exposure assessment from a monitor in each community, which will operate continuously during the lifetime of participants. Community participation in promoting the study to participants and in data collection and interpretation will enhance both the quality of Center research and the environmental action plans for families of children with asthma in ongoing projects of the community partners. A steering committee representing university and community research partners and policy makers will work closely with the Community Outreach and Translation Core (COTC) to provide the scientific basis necessary for developing policy for the more widespread protection of children from the effects of air pollution.
The specific objectives of the research project are to: (1) identify the population for the proposed case-control study; (2) collect information from parents of participants to assess asthma, activity patterns, and risk factors for asthma, using a structured telephone interview, which also will be administered by Community Study Liaisons; (3) assess the relationship between residential exposure to ambient traffic-related air pollutants and asthma among cases and controls, using information from the Exposure Assessment
Description:
We plan to complete recruitment and the first waves of home air pollution sampling in the coming year, followed by questionnaire administration and buccal cell collection for analysis of polymorphisms.