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A Literature Review and Data Mining Project to Identify Associations between Stressors and Health Outcomes for Children
Citation:
Utile, S., N. Tulve, AND K. Thomas. A Literature Review and Data Mining Project to Identify Associations between Stressors and Health Outcomes for Children. 2017 ISES Annual Meeting, Durham, NC, October 15 - 19, 2017.
Impact/Purpose:
General poster for ISES 2017 annual meeting
Description:
Children are often more vulnerable than adults to the effects of environmental contaminants found in their everyday environments. Their dynamic growth and unique interactions with the built, natural, and social environments may result in a greater susceptibility to chemical and non-chemical stressors and potential adverse health consequences. Our objective was to examine approaches for evaluating interrelationships between chemical and non-chemical stressors and children’s health outcomes. Using several search engines (e.g., Google Scholar, Web of Science) and websites (e.g., EPA and NIEHS websites), we compiled over 2400 peer reviewed articles published by the EPA/NIEHS Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research Centers (Children’s Centers) for the period 1998-2016. We focused on Children’s Centers publications because of the emphasis on chemical exposures, non-chemical stressors, and multiple child-specific lifestages. Full citations, keywords, and abstracts were entered into an EndNote database. Topic-specific libraries were created for specific chemical (e.g., metals, phthalates, pesticides) and non-chemical (e.g., built environment, food access, cultural practices) stressors and associated health outcomes (e.g., obesity, asthma). Prior to data extraction, manuscripts were reviewed to determine if they contained extractable data, information on chemical and/or non-chemical stressors and the health outcome of interest, and did not pertain to animal studies. Extracted data were entered into a database modeled after the Comparative Toxicogenomics Database. One topic-specific library focused on stressors and childhood obesity, with 156 Children’s Center publications. Of these publications, 14 described chemical (e.g., phthalates, pesticides) stressors and 11 identified non-chemical (e.g., food types) stressors associated with childhood obesity. Preliminary analyses of the childhood obesity and stressors topic specific library will be presented.
