Grantee Research Project Results

2011 Progress Report: Assess the Linkage Between School-Related Environment, Children’s School Performance/Health, and Environmental Policies Through Environmental Public Health Tracking

EPA Grant Number: R834787
Title: Assess the Linkage Between School-Related Environment, Children’s School Performance/Health, and Environmental Policies Through Environmental Public Health Tracking
Investigators: Lin, Shao
Institution: The State University of New York
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: February 1, 2011 through January 31, 2014 (Extended to January 31, 2017)
Project Period Covered by this Report: February 1, 2011 through January 31,2012
Project Amount: $500,000
RFA: Exploring Linkages Between Health Outcomes and Environmental Hazards, Exposures, and Interventions for Public Health Tracking and Risk Management (2009) RFA Text |  Recipients Lists
Research Category: Human Health

Objective:

The objective of this project is to develop new and improve existing Environmental Public Health Indicators (EPHIs) related to the school environment in order to evaluate the linkage between school environment, children'’s health and performance as well as the impact of state and local environmental policy intervention. The ultimate goals are to identify school-related EPHIs that can be used for routine and long-term environmental public health tracking and surveillance, planning appropriate interventions, and protecting children's health.

Progress Summary:

We have completed all activities planned originally in Year 1 including: 1) staff recruitment and hiring; 2) literature searches and reviews; 3) application approvals from both the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and Data Protection Review Board (DPRB); and 4) preparation activities for analyses by cleaning and linking existing datasets. Some components scheduled to start in quarter 4 of Year 1 have been completed ahead of schedule, such as "developing indicators" and "developing statistical methods."

We have recruited our Project Coordinator and Consultant. We also conducted a comprehensive literature search and reviewed more than 200 peer-reviewed articles on school-based hazards, health impacts related to school environment, and relevant methodologies. In addition, we have applied and obtained approvals from the NYSDOH IRB and DPRB. All data currently available have been cleaned and merged. All asthma cases were assigned to corresponding school districts and schools. The team has made significant progress toward developing and evaluating 23 novel school-based environmental health indicators. A comprehensive summary was compiled including measures of various indoor hazards (indoor air quality, school building conditions, and composite measures) and outdoor school-related environmental hazards (traffic, air pollution, proximity to industrial facilities, and pesticide use and management) that have a biological basis for concern. We completed an extensive literature search in the school environment field, reviewed existing peer-reviewed literature, and examined available and relevant data sources in NYS to develop the indicator list. Our team members worked closely with representatives from our in-house EPHT program and utilized existing guidelines (Malecki, et al., 2008) to evaluate these indicators, including the following: scientific basis and relevance, analysis soundness and feasibility, and interpretation and utility. They then were ranked as high, medium, or low according to our specific criteria. A template format was used to summarize these evaluations and the evaluations for all the indicators were combined into one document to form a "directory booklet." We also have determined the appropriate methodology for assessing hazard/exposure-outcome relationships and creating school EPH indices. Outlines of statistically appropriate methods for the various types of indicators/study designs have been created, including information on model assumptions and how-to-use guides. Some descriptive analyses have been completed and others are underway.

Future Activities:

The activities for the second year of this grant will include gaining access to all data required, conducting hazard-outcome analyses, and intervention analyses. The team will utilize a variety of statistical approaches to gain an increased understanding of the role of various aspects of the school environment with respect to respiratory health outcomes (asthma hospitalizations and emergency room visits), student attendance, and performance in school. Multi-level approaches with longitudinal, case-control and cross-sectional study designs will be applied using multivariate linear and logistic regression techniques. Also, source apportionment, principal components analysis, and land-use regression will be used during validation assessments. We also will use time-series (general-additive models) and cross-sectional (for spatial comparisons) analysis designs to examine potential impacts from environmental actions and policies such as school bus retrofitting/ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel policy, school bus idling policy, and NOx SIP Call in NYS. We anticipate being able to complete a large portion of the policy evaluation analyses during the second reporting period.

Journal Articles:

No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 22 publications for this project

Supplemental Keywords:

children, school-related hazards, public health tracking;

Progress and Final Reports:

Original Abstract

2012 Progress Report

2013 Progress Report

2014 Progress Report

2015 Progress Report

Final Report