Environmental determinants of health: Measuring multiple physical environmental exposures at the United States census tract level

Alina Peluso, Deeksha Rastogi, Hilda B. Klasky, Jeremy Logan, Dakotah Maguire, Josh Grant, Blair Christian, Heidi A. Hanson

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Physical environment plays a key role in determining human health risks. Exposure to toxins, weather extremes, degraded air and water quality, high levels of noise and limited accessibility to green areas can negatively affect health. Furthermore, adverse environmental exposures are often correlated with each other and with socioeconomic status, thereby compounding disadvantages in marginalized populations. Moreover, despite their importance in determining human health risks, the role of multiple environmental exposures is not well studied, and only a few resources contain aggregate environmental exposure data and only for selected areas of the contiguous US. To fill these gaps, we took a cumulative approach to measuring the environment by generating a composite Multi-Exposure Environmental Index (MEEI) as a US Census Tract-level summary of key environmental factors with known health effects. This measure quantifies multiple environmental exposures in the same area that can result in additive and synergistic effects on health outcomes. This information is crucial to better understand and possibly leverage environmental determinants of health for informed policy-making and intervention.

Original languageEnglish
Article number103303
JournalHealth and Place
Volume89
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2024

Funding

This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doepublic-access-plan).Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1-TR001409, KL2-TR001432 & TL1-TR001431. The content is solely the responsability of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. ORNL Notice: This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doepublic-access-plan ). GHUCCTS Notice: Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Center For Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1-TR001409, KL2-TR001432 TL1TR001431. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

FundersFunder number
DOE Public Access Plan
U.S. Department of Energy
DOE
National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences
National Institutes of HealthUL1-TR001409, KL2-TR001432 TL1TR001431, TL1-TR001431
National Institutes of Health

    Keywords

    • Environmental deprivation
    • Environmental determinant of health
    • Multi-exposure environmental index (MEEI)
    • Physical environment
    • US census tract

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