Routes to Environmental Justice: Assessment of Ambient Environmental Exposures for Safe Routes to School Programs

在6-11岁的美国儿童中，只有不到一半的人达到推荐的体力活动水平，这是一种健康 跟踪到成年的行为，并降低心血管疾病、糖尿病和癌症的风险。 大量投资被用于为学龄儿童创造健康的环境 包括安全上学路线(SRTS)，这是一项全国性的计划，包括改善人行道， 人行横道和自行车道。SRTS已被证明可以增加儿童活跃通勤的百分比 到学校；然而，高环境温度可能会成为从事户外体育活动的障碍 由于温度不适。了解SRT对湿法测量的儿童热应激的影响 全球灯泡温度(WBGT)和体力活动水平对健康公平至关重要，尤其是在德克萨斯州 低收入社区和有色人种社区的儿童生活在不太支持身体健康的地区 由于歧视性政策和持续不断的活动和不成比例的环境温度上升 撤资。这项拟议的研究利用了街道研究--SRT的前后评估 在德克萨斯州奥斯汀，关于儿童体育活动--提出三个具体目标：1)建立环境暴露 对干预前和干预后的学校路线上的WBGT以及家庭社区中使用空间- 和时间精细化的建模和GPS单元；2)确定环境温度和建筑 环境与积极的学校通勤联系在一起；3)确定测量和记录的方法 儿童和他们的父母如何体验和感知环境暴露。vbl.使用 在地理信息系统中的时空建模和文献中的公式中，将估计所有学校路线的WBGT 街道队列中登记的462名学生(来自23所学校的320名学生；142名 来自10所学校的学生没有接受SRT)，他们的任务是佩戴加速计和GPS设备 在SRTS实施前后的四个时期(2018-2022年)内连续七天。线型 将使用混合效果建模来确定WBGT、建成环境和儿童之间的关系 体力活动。了解孩子和他们的父母如何体验和感知周围环境 将对40名三年级学生进行曝光、参与式方法(调查、测绘、传感器)测试，并 他们的父母是从街道研究中登记的学校中有目的地抽样招募的。成为一名 作为一名专门研究气候公平的独立调查员，这位候选人制定了一份职业发展计划 有三个培训目标：1)熟练使用环境环境数据，特别是 缩小模型产出；2)培养进行高级统计分析的专门知识 应用于暴露和健康研究；以及3)熟悉 基于社区的参与性研究。职业发展将主要在Michael&Susan酒店进行 位于奥斯汀的UTHealth公共卫生学院的戴尔健康生活中心。

Less than one-half of U.S. children age 6–11 are reaching recommended levels of physical activity, a health behavior that tracks into adulthood and reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer. Significant investment has been directed towards creating healthy environments for school-age children including Safe Routes to School (SRTS), a national program that includes improvements to sidewalks, crosswalks, and bicycle lanes. SRTS has been shown to increase the percentage of children active commuting to school; however, high ambient temperatures may serve as a barrier to engaging in outdoor physical activity due to thermal discomfort. Understanding the impact of SRTS on children's heat stress as measured by wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) and physical activity levels is critical for health equity, especially in Texas where children in low-income communities and communities of color live in areas less supportive of physical activity and disproportionately higher ambient temperatures due to discriminatory policies and ongoing disinvestment. The proposed research leverages the STREETS study—a pre- and post-assessment of SRTS in Austin, Texas, on child physical activity—to propose three specific aims: 1) construct ambient exposure estimates of WBGT on school routes pre- and post-intervention and in home neighborhoods using spatially- and temporally-refined modeling and GPS units; 2) determine how ambient temperatures and the built environment are associated with active school commuting; and 3) identify methods to measure and document how children and their parents experience and perceive ambient environmental exposures. Using spatiotemporal modeling within GIS and formulae in the literature, WBGT will be estimated for all school routes taken by 462 students enrolled in the STREETS cohort (320 students from 23 schools receiving SRTS; 142 students from 10 schools not receiving SRTS) who were tasked with wearing accelerometers and GPS units for seven consecutive days over four periods (2018–2022) before and after SRTS implementation. Linear mixed-effects modeling will be used to determine the relations between WBGT, built environment, and child physical activity. To learn how children and their parents experience and perceive ambient environmental exposures, participatory methods (surveys, mapping, sensors) will be tested with 40 third grade students and their parents recruited by purposive sampling from schools enrolled in the STREETS study. To become an independent investigator specializing in climate equity, the candidate developed a career development plan with three training objectives: 1) to become proficient in working with ambient environmental data, in particular downscaled model outputs; 2) to develop expertise in conducting advanced statistical analyses commonly applied in exposure and health studies; and 3) to acquire familiarity with the design and techniques of community-based participatory research. Career development will mainly take place at the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at UTHealth School of Public Health in Austin.