Grantee Research Project Results
2013 Progress Report: Revision Application to Support Environmental Health Disparities Research
EPA Grant Number: NIMHD010Title: Revision Application to Support Environmental Health Disparities Research
Investigators: Provencio-Vasquez, Elias , Olvera, Hector , Grineski, Sara , Collins, Timothy
Institution: The University of Texas at El Paso , The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: August 1, 2011 through July 31, 2014
Project Period Covered by this Report: April 1, 2013 through June 30,2013
Project Amount: $752,795
RFA: Transdisciplinary Networks of Excellence on the Environment and Health Disparities (2012) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Environmental Justice , Human Health
Objective:
This Revision award proposed to expand the scope of the existing Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center (HHDRC) by integrating a new thematic Core focused on Environment. The Environment Core is nested within the current core structure and the broader aims of the HHDRC, and is advancing innovative research and practice in environmental health.
The vision for the Environment Core (EC) is to: (1) advance knowledge of interrelationships between environmental and social determinants of health disparities, particularly within heterogeneous Hispanic populations, through a commitment to transdisciplinary research; and (2) utilize this knowledge to influence policy change, public health practice and community-based interventions to reduce disparities. The vision of the Environment Core is being operationalized through the following three Specific Aims that explicitly link this core with the overall specific aims and ongoing activities of the HHDRC:
EC Specific Aim 1: Conduct research to evaluate complex interactions between social, built and natural environmental systems, while clarifying which aspects of Mexican-origin/Hispanic status are most important, as determinants of environmental health disparities
EC Specific Aim 2: Build research and training capacities to examine and address environmental health disparities
EC Specific Aim 3: Facilitate the translation of environmental health disparities research into policy, public health practice, and community-based engagement
Specific Aim 1 is being addressed over the 20-month funding period through two trans-disciplinary studies. Trans-disciplinary Study 1 is a multilevel modeling analysis of social and environmental determinants of children’s lung health. Trans-disciplinary Study 2 examines how Hispanic ethnicity interacts with other social characteristics to influence respiratory and cardiovascular hospitalizations due to increases in daily air pollution.
Specific Aim 2 is being addressed through the cultivation of trans-disciplinary research and training capacity among students and faculty at UTEP/UTSPH. To these ends, the EC will offer pilot grants, support student research assistants (RAs), develop and implement curricular changes at UTEP, and develop an Environmental Health Research Lab (EHRL).
Specific Aim 3 will generally orient the EC’s outreach activities into the future. The primary activity related to this aim, currently underway, is the development of an informed action plan for future community-based research, interventions, and fundamental science that is grounded in the needs of stakeholders and community members.
Progress Summary:
Specific Aim 1: Completed Work on Trans-disciplinary Study #1
- The PM surface was completed (Olvera) and integrated into a geodatabase, including survey data. PM values for each child’s home and school were calculated (Grineski)
- A descriptive paper using the survey data is “under peer review” at the Pan-American Journal of Public Health. (Manuscript 1)
- Team members: Grineski SE, Collins TW, Chavez-Payan P, Jimenez AM, Kim Y-A, Gaines M, Clark-Reyna E.
- Title: Social Disparities in Children’s Respiratory Health in El Paso, Texas. Pan-American Journal of Public Health
- Preliminary results: El Paso children have higher than average rates of respiratory health conditions.
- Completed a multilevel model analysis of neighborhood poverty and immigrant concentration on children’s wheezing. The analysis was led by a Sociology MA student as part of his MA Thesis. Manuscript is in final stages of preparation. (Manuscript 2)
- Team members: Kim Y-A, Collins TW, Grineski SE.
- Title: Neighborhood Context and Children’s Wheezing in a Hispanic Immigrant Gateway: Effects of Economic Deprivation and Nativity
- Preliminary results: Higher neighborhood poverty and lower concentration of immigrants at the neighborhood level is associated with higher odds of wheezing for 4th/5th grade children in El Paso.
- Ongoing analysis relating the PM surface to the health outcomes. (Manuscript 3)
- Team members: Grineski SE, Collins TW, Olvera HA.
- Working Title: Spatial variability in the impacts of PM2.5 on children’s wheezing in El Paso, Texas
- Preliminary results: The impacts of PM on children’s wheezing are not uniform throughout El Paso; PM has greater impacts on wheezing in the northeastern part of the city near the military base. Other risk factors (e.g., U.S.-born primary caretaker) are intensified in the presence of PM.
- Ongoing analysis related to ultrafine particulate matter. Manuscript is under preparation (Manuscript 4)
- Team members: Olvera HZ, Jimenez O, Grineski SE, Provencio-Vasquez E.
- Working title: Assessing long-term exposure to ultrafine particle number concentrations near highways using an atmospheric dispersion model
- Ongoing analysis of children’s acculturation and its impact on asthma, led by P. Chavez-Payan, Graduate Research Assistant (GRA). She defended her MA thesis proposal on this topic during the reporting period. A related manuscript is underway. (Manuscript 5)
- Team members: Chavez-Payan P, Grineski SE, Collins TW.
- Working Title: Acculturation and Children’s Asthma Disparities in El Paso Independent School District
- Preliminary results: Children’s acculturation is a strong positive predictor of asthma when adjusting for other known risk factors.
- Ongoing analysis of the role of generational status on children’s access to health care, this project involves a sociology undergraduate student (Manuscript 6)
- Team members: Balcazar, A., Grineski SE, Collins TW.
- Working Title: Generational Status and Access to Health Care among a population-based sample of El Paso schoolchildren
- Preliminary results: Being in the “2.5 generation” (i.e., US born child with 1 foreign-born parent) is associated with reduced access to care compared to children in the “3+ generation” (i.e., U.S.-born child with U.S.-born parents) on some measures of access. Children in the “2.0 and under” generation (i.e., both parents are foreign-born) have the worst access to care of the three generational groups.
- Beginning analysis of the role of neighborhood acculturation on children’s respiratory health and access to care. (Manuscript 7)
- Kim Y-A, Grineski SE, Collins TW, Chavez-Payan P, Balcazar, A.
Specific Aim 1: Completed Work on Trans-disciplinary Study #2
- Completed case-crossover analysis for congestive heart failure and COPD hospitalizations (2005-2010) (Manuscript 8)
- Team members: Herrera JM, Staniswalis J, Grineski SE.
- Preliminary results for congestive heart failure: Main effect models: PM2.5 was significant predictor of hospitalizations (among adults over 40) for congestive heart failure. High wind was also significant. NO2 and ozone were not significant predictors of hospitalizations for congestive heart failure in El Paso.
- Preliminary results for COPD: Subgroup and interaction models: “non-Hispanic Other race” (e.g., African American and Native American) individuals were at risk for COPD hospitalizations to a greater degree than white and Hispanic individuals due to increases in ozone and NO2. The uninsured had increased risk of hospitalizations as compared to the privately insured when NO2 increased and those with Medicaid had increased risk as compared to the privately insured when ozone increased. Adults (age 40-74) had greater risk than the elderly (over 75) to increases in NO2 and ozone, while the elderly were more at risk to increases in PM than were adults.
- Completed analysis for asthma, which is serving as the basis for a master’s thesis project for GRA (JM Herrera), who defended her thesis proposal during project period.
Specific Aim 2: Completed Work
- The Environmental Health Research Lab has continued to grow in capacity. Olvera has added close to $200,000 in air quality monitoring equipment through NIH funded grants and support from UTEP’s School of Nursing and Center for Environmental Research and Management.
- Mentored students are successfully pursuing graduate school.
- Two sociology RA’s graduated during this reporting period (M Gaines and S Clark-Reyna) and are starting graduate school in August 2013.
- One former MA-level RA (A Jimenez) that graduated in May 2012 is finishing his first year of his doctoral program at the University of Minnesota.
- Two students supported through Staudt’s faculty pilot award are starting doctoral programs at Texas A & M in August 2013.
- Related to Study #1 and Study #2, the EC is currently supporting two graduate RA, two undergraduate RAs, and another undergraduate student RA (through another funding mechanism for undergraduate student research assistants on campus; he will transition to EC funding in August).
- Two faculty pilot projects are underway and both involve student RAs.
Specific Aim 3: Completed Work
- Nothing to report
Future Activities:
In the next reporting period, we plan to work toward competition of the following activities:
Aim 1: Upcoming Tasks in Trans-disciplinary Study #1
Write and submit manuscripts outlined above.
Begin other analyses, such as one looking at social disparities in PM exposure and the impacts of PM on the severity of respiratory symptoms for children with asthma.
Aim 1: Upcoming Tasks in Trans-disciplinary Study #2
Develop a synthetic way of reporting results of many models in a parsimonious way.
Write manuscript outlined above.
Aim 2: Upcoming Tasks
Continue to mentor students.
The two graduate research assistants will defend their project-related theses before December 2013.
Olvera and Environmental Health Research Lab will begin work on a series of grant proposals related to Hispanic elders and air pollution risks.
3: Upcoming Tasks
Conduct assessment.
Journal Articles on this Report : 9 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
Other project views: | All 40 publications | 21 publications in selected types | All 20 journal articles |
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Type | Citation | ||
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Collins TW, Jimenez AM, Grineski SE. Hispanic health disparities after a flood disaster: results of a population-based survey of individuals experiencing home site damage in El Paso (Texas, USA). Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health 2013;15(2):415-426. |
NIMHD010 (2013) NIMHD010 (Final) |
Exit Exit Exit |
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Collins TW, Grineski SE, Ford P, Aldouri R, Fitzgerald R, Romo L, Velazquez-Angulo G, Lu D. Mapping vulnerability to climate change-related hazards: children at-risk in a US-Mexico border metropolis. Population and Environment 2013;34(3):313-337. |
NIMHD010 (2013) |
Exit |
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Grineski SE, Collins TW, Chakraborty J. Hispanic heterogeneity and environmental injustice: intra-ethnic patterns of exposure to cancer risks from traffic-related air pollution in Miami. Population and Environment 2013;35(1):26-44. |
NIMHD010 (2013) NIMHD010 (Final) |
Exit |
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Grineski SE, Hernandez AA, Ramos V. Raising children in a violent context: an intersectionality approach to understanding parents’ experiences in Ciudad Juárez. Women’s Studies International Forum 2013;40:10-22. |
NIMHD010 (2013) |
Exit |
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Grineski SE, Collins TW, Chakraborty J, McDonald YJ. Environmental health injustice: exposure to air toxics and children's respiratory hospital admissions in El Paso, Texas. The Professional Geographer 2013;65(1):31-46. |
NIMHD010 (2013) NIMHD010 (Final) |
Exit |
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Jimenez AM, Collins TW, Grineski SE. Intra-ethnic disparities in respiratory health outcomes among Hispanic residents impacted by a flood. Journal of Asthma 2013;50(5):463-471. |
NIMHD010 (2013) NIMHD010 (Final) |
Exit |
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Jin S, Staniswalis JG, Mallawaarachchi I. Principal differential analysis with a continuous covariate: low-dimensional approximations for functional data. Journal of Statistical Computation and Simulation 2013;83(10):1964-1980. |
NIMHD010 (2013) |
Exit |
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Olvera HA, Perez D, Clague JW, Cheng YS, Li WW, Amaya MA, Burchiel SW, Berwick M, Pingitore NE. The effect of ventilation, age, and asthmatic condition on ultrafine particle deposition in children. Pulmonary Medicine 2012;2012:736290, doi:10.1155/2012/736290. |
NIMHD010 (2013) |
Exit Exit |
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Olvera HA, Lopez M, Guerrero V, Garcia H, Li W-W. Ultrafine particle levels at an international port of entry between the US and Mexico:exposure implications for users, workers, and neighbors. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 2013;23(3):289-298. |
NIMHD010 (2013) NIMHD010 (Final) |
Exit Exit |
Supplemental Keywords:
Hispanic health disparities, children’s asthmaProgress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe 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.