Grantee Research Project Results
2011 Progress Report: Community Stressors and Susceptibility to Air Pollution in Urban Asthma
EPA Grant Number: R834576Title: Community Stressors and Susceptibility to Air Pollution in Urban Asthma
Investigators: Clougherty, Jane E. , Spengler, John D. , Kubzansky, Laura D. , Carr Shmool, Jessie L , Fromewick, Jill , Abbatangelo-Gray, Jodie , Ito, Kazuhiko , Dotson-Newman, Ogonnaya , Shepard, Peggy
Current Investigators: Clougherty, Jane E. , Spengler, John D. , Kubzansky, Laura D. , Carr Shmool, Jessie L , Onokpise, Oghenekome U. , Ito, Kazuhiko , Shepard, Peggy
Institution: University of Pittsburgh , West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT for Environmental Justice) , Harvard University , New York University
Current Institution: University of Pittsburgh , Harvard University , New York University School of Medicine , West Harlem Environmental Action (WE ACT for Environmental Justice)
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: March 1, 2011 through February 28, 2015 (Extended to February 28, 2016)
Project Period Covered by this Report: March 1, 2011 through March 1,2012
Project Amount: $1,250,000
RFA: Understanding the Role of Nonchemical Stressors and Developing Analytic Methods for Cumulative Risk Assessments (2009) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health
Objective:
This project aims to understand relative spatial distributions in key community-level psychosocial stressors and air pollution exposures across New York City, and to examine their separate and synergistic effects of childhood asthma exacerbation.
Progress Summary:
Future Activities:
In Year 2, we will facilitate 25 adult and teen focus groups, spatially distributed across all 5 NYC boroughs, to identify key stressors in diverse communities. Using insights from these focus groups, we will implement a systematic city-wide survey, to 1,000 adults across all NYC neighborhoods (in summer 2012 and winter, 2012-13), to capture individual-level perceived stress. We have added an online component that will enable residents to ‘draw’ their neighborhood outline in a GIS interface, to assess the spatial relevance of community-level indicators. Together, these data will enable us to systematically examine the association between community-level stressor indices (e.g., poverty or crime rates) and individual stress experience.