Associations between Ambient Air Pollution and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Florida

佛罗里达州环境空气污染与不良出生结果之间的关联

• 批准号: 7953149
• 负责人: Xiaohui Xu
• 金额: $ 12.2万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-12-08 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7953149
• 关键词: Address; Adult; Age; Air; Air Pollutants; Air Pollution; Applications Grants; Birth; Birth Certificates; Birth Weight; Carbon Monoxide; Cardiovascular Diseases; Censuses; Characteristics; Chemicals; Childhood; Climate; Complex; Conceptions; Conflict (Psychology); Data; Data Quality; Data Set; Detection; Development; Development Plans; Droughts; Engine Exhaust; Environmental Epidemiology; Environmental Exposure; Environmental Risk Factor; Epidemiologic Studies; Epidemiology; Event; Exposure to; Fetal Growth; Fetal Growth Retardation; Fetus; Florida; Funding; Gender; Geographic Locations; Gestational Age; Goals; Grant; Health; Human; Individual; Induced Labor; Infant; Knowledge; Low Birth Weight Infant; Manuscripts; Maternal Exposure; Mentors; Mentorship; Meteorological Factors; Modeling; Modification; Morbidity - disease rate; Multiple Birth Offspring; Nature; Neighborhoods; Nitrogen Oxides; Outcome; Ozone; Parents; Pattern; Power Plants; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Outcome; Premature Birth; Public Health; Race; Reaction; Recreation; Reporting; Reproductive Health; Research; Research Design; Resolution; Resources; Risk; Role; Scientist; Seasons; Series; Socioeconomic Factors; Source; Statistical Models; Sunlight; Techniques; Time; Time Series Analysis; Training; Universities; Vehicle Emissions; Vital Statistics; Wildfire; Work; Writing; assisted reproduction; career development; chemical reaction; cohort; data modeling; data registry; design; exhaust; experience; fetal; improved; insight; man; mortality; multilevel analysis; population based; programs; season of birth; skills; social; stem; trend; volatile organic compound

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overarching long-term goal is to be a leading scientist of environmental epidemiology and to develop a program of research that improves our understanding the role of environmental exposures in human health. The primary short-term research objective is to establish an independent and collaborative research agenda and projects at the University of Florida with a major focus on epidemiological research on environmental exposures, particularly on air pollution. This career development plan will provide the necessary resources to expand my inquiry into health problems related to air pollution by providing training in additional technique skills and formal mentorship to: (1) advance my knowledge of the impacts of air pollution on reproductive health; (2) gain further experiences in the conduct of research in environmental epidemiology, including study design, exposure assessment, large dataset management skills and statistical modeling; and (3) advance the skills which are essential for successful competition of independent grant funding, including scientific writing, manuscript development and grantsmanship. In particular, the goal of this mentored research is to investigate the health effects of air pollution on fetal health. The increasing rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes such as preterm delivery and low birth weight, which are major causes of mortality and/or morbidity in childhood and adulthood, have been reported in the USA and in Florida. Growing epidemiological evidence suggests associations between maternal exposure to ambient air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcomes. However, the findings have been inconsistent. The intent here is to evaluate the associations between ambient air pollution and adverse pregnancy outcome in Florida. This study will utilize three related datasets for the same geographic area and time periods: the Florida birth certificate data, US census data and the interpolated air quality data from the Hierarchical Bayesian (HB) space-time statistical model, which provides a better spatial resolution of air pollution levels for more accurately assessing exposure. In this study, one will: 1) use a population-based birth cohort to examine the associations between air pollution and adverse birth outcomes by emphasizing on detection of the critical windows of exposure and identification of the effect modifiers; 2) apply multilevel models to further investigate these associations after considering the confounding effects and/or effect modification of neighborhood level factors (i.e. census tract- level variables); 3) use a time-series analysis to assess the associations between air pollution and preterm births; 4) develop a grant proposal for independent funding to conduct a study on air pollution and reproductive health. This study specifically addresses health effects of air pollution on adverse pregnancy outcomes with the ultimate goal of offering insight into their etiological causes, which can be modifiable in order to reduce these major reproductive health problems. Therefore, this work is of critical public health importance because of the increasing rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes, their long-term health consequences and the omnipresent nature of air pollution. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Considering the increasing rates of adverse pregnancy outcomes and the omnipresent nature of air pollution, it is important to understand the role of air pollution in the development of adverse pregnancy outcomes, whether air pollution has adverse health effects on fetus and whether the associations will change if considering the confounding effects of additional neighborhood-level socially environmental factors. Furthermore, determining whether fetus at certain period of time during pregnancy is more sensitive to air pollution and whether fetus with certain characteristics is more vulnerable to adverse health effects of air pollution can help us better a causal relationship between them, which in turn guides us to reverse the increasing rates of adverse birth outcomes. This proposal seeks to better understand these relationships using 2004-2005 Florida birth registry data, census data and the modeled air quality data.

描述（由申请人提供）：总体长期目标是成为环境流行病学的领先科学家，并制定一项研究计划，以提高我们对环境暴露对人类健康的作用的理解。主要的短期研究目标是在佛罗里达大学建立一个独立和合作的研究议程和项目，主要关注环境暴露的流行病学研究，特别是空气污染。该职业发展计划将提供必要的资源，通过提供额外的技术技能培训和正式指导来扩大我对与空气污染相关的健康问题的探究，以：（1）增进我对空气污染对生殖健康影响的了解； (2) 进一步获得环境流行病学研究的经验，包括研究设计、暴露评估、大数据集管理技能和统计建模； (3) 提高独立资助竞争成功所必需的技能，包括科学写作、手稿开发和资助技巧。特别是，这项指导研究的目标是调查空气污染对胎儿健康的影响。据美国和佛罗里达州的报告，早产和低出生体重等不良妊娠结局的发生率不断增加，这是儿童期和成年期死亡和/或发病的主要原因。越来越多的流行病学证据表明，母亲接触环境空气污染与不良妊娠结局之间存在关联。然而，研究结果并不一致。这里的目的是评估佛罗里达州环境空气污染与不良妊娠结局之间的关联。本研究将利用相同地理区域和时间段的三个相关数据集：佛罗里达州出生证明数据、美国人口普查数据以及来自分层贝叶斯 (HB) 时空统计模型的插值空气质量数据，该模型提供了更好的空间分辨率空气污染水平，以便更准确地评估暴露情况。在这项研究中，我们将：1）使用基于人口的出生队列来检查空气污染与不良出生结果之间的关联，重点是检测关键暴露窗口和识别影响调节剂； 2) 在考虑邻里水平因素（即人口普查区域水平变量）的混杂效应和/或效应修正后，应用多水平模型进一步研究这些关联； 3) 使用时间序列分析来评估空气污染与早产之间的关联； 4) 制定一项独立资助的赠款提案，以开展空气污染和生殖健康研究。这项研究专门讨论了空气污染对不良妊娠结局的健康影响，最终目标是深入了解其病因，并可对其病因进行修改，以减少这些主要的生殖健康问题。因此，由于不良妊娠结局的发生率不断增加、其长期健康后果以及空气污染无处不在，因此这项工作对于公共卫生具有至关重要的意义。 公众健康相关性：考虑到不良妊娠结局发生率不断增加以及空气污染无处不在，了解空气污染在不良妊娠结局发展中的作用、空气污染是否对胎儿产生不良健康影响以及空气污染是否对胎儿产生不良健康影响非常重要。如果考虑到其他社区层面的社会环境因素的混杂影响，协会将会发生变化。此外，确定怀孕期间的某个时间段的胎儿是否对空气污染更敏感，以及具有某些特征的胎儿是否更容易受到空气污染的不良健康影响，可以帮助我们更好地了解两者之间的因果关系，从而指导我们扭转不良分娩结果不断增加的趋势。该提案旨在利用 2004-2005 年佛罗里达州出生登记数据、人口普查数据和模拟空气质量数据更好地理解这些关系。