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

项目概要/摘要 结构性种族主义和歧视，它影响到各种程序、政策和条例， 系统，被描述为健康的社会决定因素的根本原因，并提供了一个框架， 了解儿童健康差异。此外，这些结构性因素影响生活经验并引起压力， 这导致了生物功能和生理应激反应的级联变化，包括表观遗传的变化， 流程.因此，无论是上游（在社会或邻里领域）和下游（在 个人或生物领域）因素结合起来影响儿童健康的差异，包括 神经发育和呼吸系统健康，这两者都是广泛的，社会模式， 无法单独用个体水平的风险因素来解释。接触环境毒物（下游因素） 与儿童的神经发育和呼吸系统健康差异有关。在目标1中，我们 建议阐明产前和产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亲 歧视经历。在目标2中，我们提出了一个新的结构性种族主义概念， 对多个领域的影响，并将评估环境有毒物质暴露的潜在作用， 表观遗传衰老是结构性种族主义与儿童神经发育之间关系的介导者。在目标4中， 我们将探讨种族和民族差异在孕前暴露于环境烟草烟雾， 儿童的呼吸系统健康状况。我们的ECHO队列研究中心（目标3）将加强地理和 ECHO联盟的种族/民族异质性，研究参与者来自休斯顿， 得克萨斯州，第四大和最多样化的城市在全国，并位于该地区，目前有 在欧共体人道处的代表性非常有限。休斯顿的特点还在于没有分区和一个大型石化 复杂的，一个忙碌海港，交通繁忙的道路，以及许多危险废物的网站，这导致 复杂的暴露情况因此，纳入我们研究中心的参与者将加强 ECHO队列解决与儿童环境健康差异有关的研究问题。我们提出的 研究将通过一项全面的增强多样性视角计划（PEDP）得到加强， 利用机构基础设施实现多样性、公平性和包容性，并成功培养研究者 由卫生资源和服务管理局（HRSA）和NIMHD/NIEHS/NICHD资助的计划;将 为处于不同职业阶段的团队成员提供指导;并与社区合作伙伴合作， 政府官员和倡导团体，我们与他们建立了信任关系，以促进ECHO 计划，获得关于研究实施的反馈，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作用。

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.