Grantee Research Project Results

Research Project B: Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Studying Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes

EPA Grant Number: R833293C002
Subproject: this is subproject number 002 , established and managed by the Center Director under grant R833293
(EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
Center: The Center for Study of Neurodevelopment and Improving Children's Health
Center Director: Murphy, Susan K.
Title: Research Project B: Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Studying Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes
Investigators: Williams, Redford , Miranda , Marie Lynn , Ashley-Koch, Allison , Swamy, Geeta , Reiter, Jerome , Maxson, Pamela , Auten, Richard
Current Investigators: Williams, Redford , Miranda , Marie Lynn , Ashley-Koch, Allison , Gibson-Davis, Christina , Swamy, Geeta , Reiter, Jerome , Maxson, Pamela
Institution: Duke University
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: May 1, 2007 through April 30, 2012 (Extended to April 30, 2014)
RFA: Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research (2005) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Children's Health , Human Health

Objective:

The central objective of the Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby Study is to determine how the interaction of environmental, social, and host factors contributes to disparities in birth outcomes between African-American and white women in the American South. There are four specific aims:

Conduct a cohort study of pregnant women in Durham, NC designed to correlate birth weight, gestation, and birth weight x gestation with environmental, social, and host factors;
Develop community-level measures of environmental and social factors by inventorying neighborhood quality and the built environment in partnership with local community groups;
Create a comprehensive data architecture, spatially resolved at the tax parcel level, of environmental, social, and host factors affecting pregnant women by linking data from the cohort study and neighborhood assessments with additional environmental and socioeconomic data; and
Determine whether and to what extent differential exposures explain health disparities in birth outcomes by applying innovative spatial and genetic statistical methods to:
1. Identify environmental, social, and host factors that cluster to predict birth outcomes in the entire sample,
2. Determine whether these clusters are more or less present in African-American versus white populations and quantify the proportion of health disparities explained by differences in cluster frequency, and
3. Identify environmental, social, and host factors that cluster to predict birth outcomes within the African-American and white sub-samples and compare these clusters across racial groups.

Publications and Presentations:

Publications have been submitted on this subproject: View all 51 publications for this subproject | View all 163 publications for this center

Journal Articles:

Journal Articles have been submitted on this subproject: View all 26 journal articles for this subproject | View all 76 journal articles for this center

Supplemental Keywords:

Pregnancy, preterm birth, low birth weight, racial disparity, African American, environmental stressors, gene-environment interactions, psychosocial stressors, genes, single nucleotide polymorphisms, genetic admixture,

Progress and Final Reports:

Main Center Abstract and Reports:

R833293 The Center for Study of Neurodevelopment and Improving Children's Health

Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R833293C001 Research Project A: Mapping Disparities in Birth Outcomes
R833293C002 Research Project B: Healthy Pregnancy, Healthy Baby: Studying Racial Disparities in Birth Outcomes
R833293C003 Research Project C: Perinatal Environmental Exposure Disparity and Neonatal Respiratory Health
R833293C004 Community Outreach and Translation Core
R833293C005 Geographic Information System and Statistical Analysis Core

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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.