Exploring Pathways through which Structural Racism Impacts Children's Environmental Health

项目摘要/摘要 结构性种族主义和歧视，它影响到管理无数的程序、政策和法规 系统，已被描述为健康的社会决定因素的根本原因，并为 了解儿童健康差距。此外，这些结构性因素会影响生活经历并引发压力， 这会导致生物功能和生理应激反应的级联变化，包括表观遗传 流程。因此，上游(在社会或邻里领域内)和下游(在 个人或生物领域)因素结合在一起影响儿童的健康差距，包括 神经发育和呼吸健康，这两个都是普遍的，社会模式，并在很大程度上 仅靠个人层面的风险因素无法解释。暴露于环境毒物(下游因素) 与儿童的神经发育和呼吸健康差异有关。因此，在目标1中，我们 建议阐明出生前和出生后接触化学混合物的情况 损害神经发育轨迹，并评估这些影响是否被母体 歧视性的经历。在目标2中，我们提出了一种新的结构性种族主义的概念来捕捉 跨多个领域的影响，并将评估环境毒物暴露和 表观遗传老化作为结构性种族主义和儿童神经发育之间关系的中介。在目标4中， 我们将探索暴露在环境烟草烟雾中的种族和民族差异以及 儿童的呼吸系统健康结果。我们的回声队列研究站点(目标3)将增强地理和 ECHO联盟的种族/民族异质性与从休斯顿招募研究参与者， 得克萨斯州，美国第四大和最多样化的城市，位于一个目前有 在ECHO中的代表性非常有限。休斯敦的特点也是没有分区和大型石化产品 复杂，繁忙的海港，繁忙的道路，以及许多危险的废物场地，这导致 复杂的曝光档案。因此，纳入我们研究现场的参与者将增强 Echo Cohort致力于解决与儿童环境健康差距相关的研究问题。我们的建议 将通过一项全面的增强多元化视角计划(PEDP)来加强研究 利用机构基础设施实现多样性、公平性和包容性以及成功的调查员发展 由卫生资源和服务管理局(HRSA)和NIMHD/NIEHS/NICHD资助的方案；将 为处于不同职业阶段的团队成员提供指导；并吸引社区合作伙伴， 与我们建立信任关系以促进回声的政府官员和倡导团体 计划，获取对研究进行的反馈，以确保ECHO队列参与者的多样性，并协助 在翻译和传播成果方面发挥最大影响。

Project Summary/Abstract Structural racism and discrimination, which affects processes, policies and regulations that govern myriad systems, have been described as the root cause of social determinants of health and provide a framework for understanding child health disparities. Further, these structural factors affect life experiences and induce stress, which leads to a cascade of changes in biologic function and physiological stress responses, including epigenetic processes. Hence, both upstream (within the societal or neighborhood realm) and downstream (within the individual or biological realm) factors coalesce to influence children’s health disparities, including disparities in neurodevelopmental and respiratory health, which are both widespread, socially patterned, and largely unexplained by individual-level risk factors alone. Exposure to environmental toxicants (a downstream factor) has been implicated in children’s neurodevelopmental and respiratory health disparities. Thus, in Aim 1, we propose to elucidate profiles of exposure to chemical mixtures during the prenatal and postnatal periods that impair neurodevelopmental trajectories and assess whether these effects are modified by maternal discriminatory experiences. In Aim 2, we propose a novel conceptualization of structural racism to capture impacts across multiple domains and will evaluate the potential role of environmental toxicant exposures and epigenetic aging as mediators of the relation between structural racism and child neurodevelopment. In Aim 4, we will explore racial and ethnic differences in preconception exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and children’s respiratory health outcomes. Our ECHO Cohort Study Site (Aim 3) will enhance the geographic and racial/ethnic heterogeneity of the ECHO Consortium with the recruitment of study participants from Houston, Texas, the fourth largest and most diverse city in the nation, and located in a region for which there is currently very limited representation in ECHO. Houston is also characterized by no zoning and a large petrochemical complex, a busy seaport, heavily trafficked roadways, and numerous hazardous waste sites, which lead to complex exposure profiles. Hence, inclusion of participants from our Study Site will strengthen the ability of the ECHO Cohort to address research questions related to children’s environmental health disparities. Our proposed research will be enhanced by a comprehensive Plan for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDP) that leverages institutional infrastructure for diversity, equity, and inclusion and successful investigator development programs funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and NIMHD/NIEHS/NICHD; will provide mentoring to team members who are at different career stages; and engage community partners, governmental officials and advocacy groups with whom we have trusting relationships to promote the ECHO Program, obtain feedback on the conduct of studies to ensure diversity of ECHO cohort participants, and assist in translation and dissemination of results to maximize impact.