Grantee Research Project Results
2016 Progress Report: Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing across the Life Course
EPA Grant Number: R836156Center: Health Effects Institute (2015 - 2020)
Center Director: Greenbaum, Daniel S.
Title: Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing across the Life Course
Investigators: Laden, Francine , Sprengler, John D , Scammell, Madeleine Kangsen , Fabian, Maria Patricia , Zanobetti, Antonella , Adamkiewicz, Gary , Levy, Jonathan
Current Investigators: Laden, Francine , Adamkiewicz, Gary , Levy, Jonathan , Zanobetti, Antonella , Scammell, Madeleine Kangsen , Sprengler, John D , Fabian, Maria Patricia , Lane, Kevin J
Institution: Harvard University , Boston University
EPA Project Officer: Callan, Richard
Project Period: July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2020 (Extended to June 30, 2021)
Project Period Covered by this Report: July 1, 2015 through June 30,2016
Project Amount: $1,500,000
RFA: NIH/EPA Centers of Excellence on Environmental Health Disparities Research (2015) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
Environmental health disparities (EHDs) are based on a combination of factors, including sociodemographic and spatial patterns of exposures to chemical and non-chemical stressors. Although this phenomenon is well recognized, the methods to characterize and ultimately mitigate EHDs have been lacking. Few epidemiological studies have characterized disparities in health effects associated with simultaneous exposure to multiple chemical stressors or confounding/effect modification by a complex mixture of nonchemical stressors. In our Center, we are conducting innovative interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies spanning epidemiology, exposure science, risk assessment, and quantitative disparities analysis, with strong community engagement. We are examining multiple health outcomes across the life course, operating within our Center’s targeted low-income communities (Chelsea and Dorchester) as well as across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (MA). Our projects are synergistic and interdependent, ensuring meaningful collective insights into EHDs. Our Center’s project and core aims are:
Project 1, Multi-Exposure Epidemiology Across the Life Course: (1) develop innovative methods to estimate health effects associated with multiple chemical stressor exposures, accounting for large numbers of potential confounders and interactions; (2) estimate the complex interactions of exposures to multiple chemical stressors with non-chemical stressors and social determinants of health disparities on birth outcomes, growth rates, and cardiovascular mortality; and (3) identify epigenetic profiles associated with air pollution exposures and the non-chemical stressors and social determinants of health disparities that modify them.
Project 2, Exposure Disparities Related to Resident Behavior and Housing Characteristics: (1) use portable, real-time monitoring devices to estimate indoor exposures to multiple chemical stressors, noise, and thermal comfort in our target communities; (2) determine how resident behaviors and housing characteristics affect indoor-outdoor associations of chemical and non-chemical stressors; and (3) use community-based crowdsourcing approaches to assess housing and household characteristics to develop season-specific determinants that predict ventilation characteristics.
Project 3, Cumulative Risk and Geospatial Health Disparities Related to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressor Exposures: (1) characterize disparities in exposure to chemical and non-chemical stressors across MA; (2) develop and evaluate multivariable chemical and non-chemical stressor constructs to better characterize exposures hypothesized to be related to EHDs; and (3) develop models of cumulative risk for multiple health outcomes across the life course in our two target communities, including quantified health benefits and changes in EHDs associated with simulated interventions.
Community Engagement Core: (1) design, implement, and evaluate training for community residents to participate in research conducted as part of Project 2; (2) evaluate and inform Project 3 chemical and nonchemical stressor constructs, stressor exposure models, and microdata simulation constraint variables; and (3) develop culturally appropriate educational materials that translate the aims and findings of research from Projects 1, 2, and 3 to improve environmental health literacy while reducing risk.
Pilot Project Program: (1) support EHD research in new and emerging topic areas within the two target communities; (2) support the application of methods and approaches to address EHDs across a wide range of underserved communities in the United States; and (3) provide seed funding that allows junior investigators the chance to maximize opportunities for independent funding.
Administrative Core: (1) provide the overall administrative infrastructure necessary to coordinate activities among projects and to facilitate interactions with EPA, NIH, and other Centers; (2) monitor the productivity and resources of the Center and its subcomponents to ensure that stated goals and objectives are met; (3) assemble advisory committees, organize regular meetings, and ensure implementation of recommendations; (4) provide mentoring and career development opportunities for the Center’s Career Development Investigators; (5) connect Center investigators with the wider EHD communities at Harvard and Boston University; and (6) provide platforms for disseminating research findings.
Progress Summary:
The Center’s Administrative Core coordinated the process to develop a name and acronym for the Center, to facilitate internal and external communication: the Center for Research on Environmental and Social Stressors in Housing across the Life Course (CRESSH). Also, project names were developed as follows: Project 1: Health Effects Across the Life course (HEAL) study, Project 2: Home-based Observation Monitoring Exposure (HOME) study and Project 3: Mapping SpAtial Patterns in Environmental Health Disparities (MAP-EHD) study.
Monthly Executive Committee Meetings began immediately upon receipt of NIH funding and continued throughout Year 1. Monthly meetings include project/core updates, community engagement and general administrative discussions. A Center website has been developed under the direction of the Harvard’s Information Technology department using WordPress (open source website development tool). The domain name cressh.org was purchased, and the website launch occurred in the spring of 2016. The site includes overview information about the Center grant and specific information about each Project and Core.
The Internal Steering Committee (ISC) committee members were invited and accepted participation shortly after NIH funding began. The ISC includes three representatives from BUSPH and three from HSPH, with members selected strategically to contribute both intellectual content and key administrative and organizational support for the Center. The first ISC meeting took place on December 8, 2015 at the BU Medical Campus. Four of the six steering committee members were able to attend, and the meeting was recorded to allow for input from the remaining two members. ISC members were joined by six Executive Committee members, many co-investigators from across the projects, and community partners from both Chelsea and Dorchester (total of 28 participants). This first ISC meeting had a dual purpose of a kick-off event for the project.
The External Advisory Board (EAB) will be comprised of research based members (outside of Boston and Harvard Universities) and community based members (with a focus on Chelsea and Dorchester communities), and will first meet in June 2016.
Two working groups were established specific to Project 2 needs: (1) overarching Project 2 working group and (2) Project 2 survey development working group. All IRB related paperwork was being closely monitored and remained up to date. Project 2 worked on a modification application to update all fieldwork data collection tools, given the anticipated launch of a field campaign in the spring of 2016. We had designated two individuals as career development investigators (CDI) – Drs. Fabian and Scammell, with a third CDI to be hired under Project 1. The third CDI was not hired in Year 1, in part because of delays in EPA funding, which was not received until the end of Year 1. Drs. Fabian and Scammell have been integrated into the leadership team of the Center and have been in discussions with Center co-directors about their roles and linkages with career trajectories.
Project 1: Health Effects Across the Life course (HEAL) Study
The proposed new statistical method (Aim 1) is based on a Bayesian model averaging approach(BMA) with a prior probability of including each potential confounder in the outcome model specificallydesigned to adjust for confounding in the context of a multivariate exposure. The informative prior assigns tothe likely confounders a higher probability of being included into the model.In the model the single exposure can be replaced by a high-dimensional vector of multiple exposures and by adjusting for several confounders. The association between exposures and outcome is estimated as a weighted average of the estimated associations obtained under different regression models with different subsets of confounders, and this approach can be formulated in terms of a penalized likelihood which leads to an easy to implement turning approach.
We also began work on preparing the datasets and preliminary analysis as part of Aim 2. Data on births from 2001-2013 were collected from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. For each birth, we calculated the gestational period using the birthdate and clinical gestational age. Next, with each mother’s geocoded address, we linked each birth to its corresponding predicted daily PM2.5 during the gestational period. We further calculated average weekly, monthly and trimester PM2.5 exposures. We used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) to define exposure to greenness. We linked each birth to the 3 NDVI observations closest in time to the birthdate. This is because NDVI data are available less frequently than PM2.5. Once these exposures were joined to the births data set, we took steps to make sure that covariates of interest were classified correctly (i.e., continuous, categorical, Boolean). We performed geospatial tasks with ArcGIS & data management with R. We started analyses on mortality. We examined 13.4 million Medicare beneficiaries residing in seven southeastern U.S. states during 2000–2013 with 97 million person-years of follow-up. The annual average of PM2.5 was predicted in each zip code tabulation area (ZCTA) using a spatially- and temporally resolved hybrid model. We estimated the association between long-term PM2.5 and survival. Moreover we tested effect modification by individual-level covariates (age, race, sex, dual eligibility, and hospitalizations), neighborhood-level covariates (percent below the poverty level, percent of less educated, urbanicity), mean summer temperature (MST), and mass fraction of 11 components.
Project 2: Home-based Observation Monitoring Exposure (HOME) Study
We completed a comprehensive literature review regarding sensor technologies and performance. We reached out to multiple investigators with experience in sensor use, including the team lead at the EPA National Exposure Research Laboratory. Our goal was to gather information and guidance on environmental sensors available as of late. We have tested and analyzed data for co-located NO2 sensors (in-lab and field data) and subsequently began testing PM sensors (in-lab data) and Netatmo weather stations (measuring temperature, relative humidity, noise, and CO2) for in-lab calibration and testing. We began to investigate event loggers, GPS monitors, and thermal imaging devices. Additionally, necessary assembly and soldering for sensors began, as did construction of proper housing for sensor kits. Also, device use and data-collection protocols were in development.
Our team met with members across the Center and both Chelsea and Dorchester community partners for two 90-minute meetings to specifically discuss project planning including: data collection, participant eligibility, recruitment proposal & materials, and study timeline. We worked with the CEC, community partners, and Project 3 team members to develop a recruitment strategy for Chelsea, MA. Recruitment will be based on block groups of neighborhoods in order to obtain a diverse sample of housing and income demographics.
We plan to finalize all questionnaires and tools by the end of Year 1. During the development process of these tools, we are properly documenting all available references and validation for questions. We have also reached out to several investigators who have expertise in question selection for important survey topics including psychosocial stress and financial hardship. We have discussed potential outdoor locations to place data collection equipment in Chelsea, Massachusetts, with community partners. Three locations were under consideration, with the next step being granted approval for equipment placement. Security, electrical power, and ease of accessibility for weekly downloading are important in selection of sites.
Project 3: Mapping SpAtial Patterns in Environmental Health Disparities (MAP-EHD) Study
Geographical database: In Year 1, we worked with the Boston University Data Coordinating Center to develop a comprehensive geographically cross-linked database of integrated public databases and surveys, including the American Community Survey, U.S. Census, American Housing Survey, Residential Energy Consumption Survey, Behavioral and Risk Factor Surveillance System, and Business Analyst. The databases are linked by a common geographical identifier, which varies in geographical resolution according to the database source. Ongoing work involves adding more databases relevant to the project, including meteorology, housing, built environment, and GIS proximity measures to services and potential pollution sources. Standardized data dictionaries were created for each database, as well as an automated querying system. This will facilitate recurring data requests as needed for Project 3 and other projects.
Mapping support. We provided mapping support for the sampling planning phase of Project 2 (HOME), by creating high geographical resolution maps of sociodemographic and housing characteristics. These maps will be used to refine the participant sampling plan in Chelsea in the spring/summer of 2016.
Disparities in air pollution. We are collaborating with researchers from Project 1 (HEAL) to evaluate disparities in air pollution exposure across Massachusetts. We have integrated the PM2.5 air pollution database with the geographical database, and began evaluating disparity indicators.
Community Engagement Core (CEC)
The CEC with the Chelsea Collaborative hosted a site visit and bus tour of the City of Chelsea in October 2015. Investigators from all three Projects participated in the tour, along with additional partners and Advisory Board members. The newly hired City Manager of Chelsea, Tom Ambrosino, also participated along with the youth crew (Environmental Chelsea Organizers) who helped organized the tour, narrating environmental justice challenges and victories in the city.
The CEC and Project 2: HOME Study have met with our community partners and worked on the recruitment plan for fieldwork beginning in the spring of 2016. We have decided to recruit based on block groups of neighborhoods in order to obtain a diverse sample of housing and income demographics. The data from this sampling will inform both Project 1: HEAL and Project 3: MAP-EHD for mapping health disparities across the city.
We have also met monthly with Project 2: HOME Study investigators and formed a Project 2 working group to develop logistics for the home visits. As mentioned above, we built CRESSH’s website as a tool for translating our work not only to researchers but to communities.
Pilot Project Program
We began the process of planning logistics and developing Center-specific materials to launch the call for applications. The first round of pilot proposals will be announced in the summer of 2016, with funding to begin in the fall.
Future Activities:
Project 1 will: (1) refine the statistical methods proposed in Aim 1; (2) prepare data sets for the health outcomes and chemical stressors, non-chemical stressors and social determinants of health disparities; (3) start analyses on birth data; (4) start analyses on mortality; and (5) start preparing the data sets for CHW.
Project 2 will: (1) continue our work with the CEC and the Chelsea Collaborative to recruit Chelsea participants; (2) complete both summer (Day 1 & Day 7 visits) and winter (Day 1 & Day 7 visits) data collection for all Chelsea participants; (3) progress with data collection, QA/QC, data management and begin data analysis of Chelsea data; and (4) work with CEC and Health Resources in Action (Dorchester community partners) to develop a recruitment strategy for Dorchester.
Project 3 will: (1) continue expanding the geographical database to include all targeted databases (meteorology, housing, the built environment, and GIS proximity measures to services and potential pollution sources); (2) begin building disparity indexes related to housing (infiltration, indoor combustion) and the built environment; and (3) quantify disparities in air pollution exposure and the infiltration index.
Community Engagement Core will: 1) have recruited and sampled homes in Chelsea for the summer and winter; (2) continue working with our community partners in between the data collection in order to keep the Chelsea community engaged and provide necessary resources regarding health disparities in housing; (3) develop partnerships with city managers, inspectional services and housing authorities to disseminate our research and advocate for a healthier Chelsea beyond the timeline of our projects; and (4) inform and develop materials to share all three of CRESSH’s research projects with researchers and communities.
Pilot Program will: 1) have launched the call for applications for Year 2 and (2) review and award funding for Year 2.
Journal Articles: 27 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other center views: | All 92 publications | 27 publications in selected types | All 27 journal articles |
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Antonelli J, Han B, Cefalu M. A synthetic estimator for the efficacy of clinical trials with all-or-nothing compliance. Statistics in Medicine 2017;36(29):4604-4615. |
R836156 (2018) R836156 (2020) |
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Antonelli J, Papadogeorgou G, Dominici F. Causal inference in high dimensions:A marriage between Bayesian modeling and good frequentist properties. BIOMETRICS 2022;78(1):100-114. |
R836156 (Final) R835872 (2020) |
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Chen F, Chen J, Hart J, Coull B, Scammell M, Chu M, Adamkiewica G. Disparities in joint exposure to environmental and social stressors in urban households in Greater Boston. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2023;238(1):11710. |
R836156 (Final) |
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Chu M, Gillooly S, Levy J, Vallarino J, Reyna L, Laurent J, Coull B, Adamkiewicz G. Real-time indoor PM2.5 monitoring in an urban cohort:Implications for exposure disparities and source control. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021;193(110561). |
R836156 (Final) R835872 (2020) |
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Fong KC, Hart JE, James P. A review of epidemiologic studies on greenness and health:updated literature through 2017. Current Environmental Health Reports 2018;5(1):77-87. |
R836156 (2018) R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Jhun I, Mata DA, Nordio F, Lee M, Schwartz J, Zanobetti A. Ambient temperature and sudden infant death syndrome in the United States. Epidemiology 2017;28(5):728-734. |
R836156 (2017) R836156 (2018) R836156 (2020) |
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Levy JI, Quiros-Alcala L, Fabian MP, Basra K, Hansel NN. Established and emerging environmental contributors to disparities in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Current Epidemiology Reports 2018;5(2):114-124. |
R836156 (2018) R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R836150 (2019) R836150 (2020) R836152 (2018) R836152 (2019) R836152 (2020) |
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Nethery R, Dominici F. Factors affecting lead Dust in construction workers' homes in the Greater Boston Area. ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH 2021;195(110510). |
R836156 (Final) |
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Rosofsky A, Levy JI, Zanobetti A, Janulewicz P, Fabian MP. Temporal trends in air pollution exposure inequality in Massachusetts. Environmental Research 2018;161:76-86. |
R836156 (2018) R836156 (2020) |
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Rosofsky A, Levy JI, Breen MS, Zanobetti A, Fabian MP. The impact of air exchange rate on ambient air pollution exposure and inequalities across all residential parcels in Massachusetts. Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology 2019;29(4):520-530. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) |
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Tomosho K, Polka E, Chacker S, Queeley D, Alvarez M, Scammell M, Emmons K, Rudd R, Adamkiewicz G. A process for creating data report-back tools to improve equity in environmental health. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 2022;21(1). |
R836156 (Final) |
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Wang Y, Shi L, Lee M, Liu P, Di Q, Zanobetti A, Schwartz JD. Long-term exposure to PM2.5 and mortality among older adults in the Southeastern US. Epidemiology 2017;28(2):207-214. |
R836156 (2017) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2016) R835872 (2017) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Wei Y, Wang Y, Wu X, Di Q, Shi L, Koutrakis P, Zanobetti A, Dominici F, Schwartz J. Causal Effects of Air Pollution on Mortality Rate in Massachusetts. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF EPIDEMIOLOGY 2020;189(11):1316-1323. |
R836156 (Final) R835872 (2020) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Wei Y, Coull B, Koutrakis P, Yang J, Li L, Zanobetti A, Schowatz J. Assessing additive effects of air pollutants on mortality rate in Massachusetts. ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH 2021;20(1):19. |
R836156 (Final) R835872 (2020) R835872C002 (Final) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Zigler CM, Choirat C, Dominici F. Impact of National Ambient Air Quality Standards nonattainment designations on particulate pollution and health. Epidemiology 2018;29(2):165-174. |
R836156 (2018) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2016) R835872C004 (Final) |
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Antonelli J, Cefalu M, Palmer N, Agniel D. Doubly robust matching estimators for high dimensional confounding adjustment. Biometrics 2018;74(4):1171-1179. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) |
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Zanobetti A, O’Neill MS. Longer-term outdoor temperatures and health effects:a review. Current Epidemiology Reports 2018;5(2):125-139. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2018) |
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Wilson A, Zigler CM, Patel CJ, Dominici F. Model‐averaged confounder adjustment for estimating multivariate exposure effects with linear regression. Biometrics 2018;74(3):1034-1044. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2017) R835872C004 (Final) |
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Fong K, Kloog I, Coull B, Koutrakis P, Laden F, Schwartz J, James P. Residential greenness and birthweight in the state of Massachusetts, USA. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2018;15(6):1248. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2018) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Gillooly SE, Zhou Y, Vallarino J, Chu MT, Michanowicz DR, Levy JI, Adamkiewicz G. Development of an in-home, real-time air pollutant sensor platform and implications for community use. Environmental Pollution 2019;244:440-450. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) |
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Rhee J, Fabian MP, Ettinger de Cuba S, Coleman S, Sandel M, Lane KJ, Yitshak Sade M, Hart JE, Schwartz J, Kloog I, Laden F. Effects of maternal homelessness, supplemental nutrition programs, and prenatal PM2.5 on birthweight. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 2019;16(21):4154. |
R836156 (2020) R835872 (2019) |
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Nethery RC, Mealli F, Dominici F. Estimating population average causal effects in the presence of non-overlap:the effect of natural gas compressor station exposure on cancer mortality. The Annals of Applied Statistics 2019;13(2):1242-1267. |
R836156 (2019) R836156 (2020) R835872 (2019) R835872C004 (Final) |
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Antonelli J, Parmigiani G, Dominici F. High-dimensional confounding adjustment using continuous spike and slab priors. Bayesian Analysis 2019;14(3):805-828. |
R836156 (2020) R835872 (2019) R835872C004 (Final) |
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Petropoulos Z, Levy J, Scammell M, Fabian MP. Characterizing community-wide housing attributes using georeferenced street-level photography. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 2020;30(2):299-308. |
R836156 (2020) |
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Rosofsky AS, Fabian MP, Ettinger de Cuba S, Sandel M, Coleman S, Levy JI, Coull BA, Hart JE, Zanobetti A. Prenatal Ambient Particulate Matter Exposure and Longitudinal Weight Growth Trajectories in Early Childhood. International journal of environmental research and public health 2020;17(4):1444. |
R836156 (2020) |
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Fong KC, Yitshak-Sade M, Lane KJ, Fabian MP, Kloog I, Schwartz JD, Coull BA, Koutrakis P, Hart JE, Laden F, Zanobetti A. Racial Disparities in Associations between Neighborhood Demographic Polarization and Birth Weight. International journal of environmental research and public health 2020;17(9):3076. |
R836156 (2020) |
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Qiu X, Wei Y, Weisskopf M, Spiro A, Shi L, Castro E, Coull B, Koutrakis P and Schwartz J. Air pollution, climate conditions and risk of hospital admissions for psychotic disorders in U.S. residents. Environ Res 2023; 216(Pt 2):114636. |
R836156 (Final) R835872C003 (Final) |
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Supplemental Keywords:
Fine particulate matter, nitrogen dioxide, air pollution, temperature, housing, cumulative risk, birth weight, mortalityRelevant Websites:
The CRESSH website (www.cressh.org Exit ) was developed as a tool for translating our work not only to researchers but also to communities. We have used appropriate language and included a Glossary section to define language used in environmental health disparities research. Our website will serve as a main source of outreach to communities for fieldwork recruitment and also will communicate housing and environmental health-related events taking place at BUSPH and HSPH over the course of the study. We also have created educational brochures on how to keep your home healthy and have drafted an info sheet of housing-related resources (inspectional services, safety, maintenance, etc.) in Chelsea to hand out during our home visits.
Progress and Final Reports:
Original Abstract Subprojects under this Center: (EPA does not fund or establish subprojects; EPA awards and manages the overall grant for this center).
R836156C001 Multi-Exposure Epidemiology across the Life Course
R836156C002 Exposure Disparities Related to Resident Behavior and Housing Characteristics
R836156C003 Cumulative Risk and Geospatial Health Disparities Related to Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressor Exposures
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.
Project Research Results
- Final Report
- 2020 Progress Report
- 2019 Progress Report
- 2018 Progress Report
- 2017 Progress Report
- Original Abstract
27 journal articles for this center