Grantee Research Project Results

2019 Progress Report: Assess school environmental effects on children's health and performance and strengthen state/community capacity to create a healthy and safe learning environment

EPA Grant Number: R835636
Title: Assess school environmental effects on children's health and performance and strengthen state/community capacity to create a healthy and safe learning environment
Investigators: Lin, Shao , Thurston, George D. , Khwaja, Haider , Xu, Xiaobo
Current Investigators: Lin, Shao , Thurston, George D. , Hwang, Syni-An
Institution: Health Research, Inc. / NYS Dept. of Health
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: December 18, 2014 through December 17, 2018 (Extended to July 31, 2020)
Project Period Covered by this Report: December 18, 2018 through December 17,2019
Project Amount: $1,000,000
RFA: Healthy Schools: Environmental Factors, Children’s Health and Performance, and Sustainable Building Practices (2013) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health

Objective:

Assess the combined effects of individual school environmental factors and their interactions with demographics and neighborhood factors on occupants' health and performance, and to work with community partners to identify the best and sustainable school building practices for an optimal learning environment.

Progress Summary:

We have analyzed the personal monitoring data by examining the seasonality, peak timing, and location (school, bus, and home) of the PM_2.5data measured;
We also completed data cleaning and reformatting of the 2015 building condition survey (BCS) data which has been linked with school attendance and test score data, and asthma admission/ED data;
We have conducted stratified analyses by examining if the school environmental exposures-students' outcomes (test scores, asthma, and absenteeism) associations are different by SES groups;
We evaluated the mediating effects of school absenteeism on the association between EPA Tools for School (TfS) o'other policies and student test scores;
We used a random forest model and decision tree method to assess the relationships between all school and home environmental exposures and students' asthma and allergy symptoms using data from questionnaire and personal monitoring data;
We have examined if the EPA TfS program or other environmental programs had any significant impacts on students' academic performance. The goals of the project have not been changed and we have made good progresses toward achieving all our project's aims.

Future Activities:

We will:

Complete the analysis regarding school air conditioner use and ventilation on children's health/test scores during this coming summer;
Develop a predictive model to assess total school environment using BCS on children's health, test scores, and performance;
Identify best school practices by completing two manuscripts regarding green building attributes on students' asthma, attendance, and test scores;
Finish our paper assessing the impacts of EPA TfS and other environmental programs on SBC; and
The temporal changes of NYS BCS (2005, 2010 and 2015) will be described and compared.

Journal Articles on this Report : 1 Displayed | Download in RIS Format

Publications Views
Other project views:	All 24 publications	11 publications in selected types	All 11 journal articles

Publications
Type	Citation	Project	Document Sources
Journal Article	Lin S, Lu Y, Lin Z, Romeiko X, Marks T, Zhang W, Khwaja H, Dong G, Thurston G. Identifying and evaluating school environmental health indicators. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 2020;27(14):16624-16639.	R835636 (2019)	Abstract from PubMed Full-text: Springer - Full Text HTML Exit Other: Springer - Full Text PDF Exit

Supplemental Keywords:

children's respiratory health, school absenteeism, student test scores, community partnership, school building factors, school environment, air quality, environmental policy, sociodemographic factors, mediation effect of school absenteeism on test scores, environmental policy's impacts on school environment.

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.