You are here:
Creating An Overall Environmental Quality Index to Examine Health Outcomes (Presentation)
Citation:
LOBDELL, D. T., L. C. Messer, K. Rapazzo, AND J. S. JAGAI. Creating An Overall Environmental Quality Index to Examine Health Outcomes (Presentation). Presented at Public Health Indicators 2011 Meeting: Promoting Healthy Communities: Developing and Exploring Linkages between Public Health Indicators, Exposure and Hazard Data, Washington, DC, September 26 - 27, 2011.
Impact/Purpose:
The interaction between environmental conditions and human health transpire from complex processes. Data representing five environmental domains (air, water, land, built and socio-demographic) were identified. Variables were constructed from each data source representing all five domains for the year 2002.
Description:
The interaction between environmental conditions and human health transpire from complex processes. Environmental exposures tend to cluster and disamenities such as landfills or industrial plants are often located in areas with high a percentage of minority and poor residents. While we tend to model isolated environmental factors, no single exposure can be held responsible for either good or poor health. To address the multifaceted nature of environmental exposures, we are currently developing an overall Environmental Quality Index (EQI) for all counties in the United States. Methods: Data representing five environmental domains (air, water, land, built and socio-demographic) were identified. Variables were constructed from each data source representing all five domains for the year 2002. County-level data principal components analysis (PCA) was used to construct domain specific indices and an omnibus EQI. Counties were stratified for urban-rural condition based on Rural Urban Continuum Codes (RUCC); index construction was repeated for each stratum. Results: An Environmental Quality Index (EQI) was developed for all counties in the US (n=3001) and stratified by urban focused (n=1090), large town focused (n = 323), small town focused (n=1059), and isolated rural focused (n=670) counties. As expected, the most influential environmental factors, based on PCA loadings, differed across RUCC strata. In all areas, however, the air and built environment domains were the strongest drivers of the omnibus EQI (with loadings ranging from ~0.65 in urban focused areas to ~0.56 in rural areas), suggesting these domains contribute importantly to environmental conditions. The strength and direction of loading in the water, land, and socio-demographic domains varied considerably across strata. Conclusion: Data representing multiple environmental domains were successfully combined into one index representing overall county level environmental conditions. This is the first attempt to bring together multiple domains of environmental quality. Indices will be developed for all years 2000 to 2005. Different levels of spatial resolution (e.g., city, community, neighborhood) will also be explored. These indices can be used to assess the cumulative impact of diverse environmental conditions in relation to various health outcomes. This is an abstract of a proposed presentation and does not necessarily reflect EPA policy.