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

不到一半的6-11岁的美国儿童达到了推荐的身体活动水平，这是一个健康问题。 这种行为会一直延续到成年，并降低患心血管疾病、糖尿病和癌症的风险。 为学龄儿童创造健康的环境进行了大量投资 包括安全上学路线（SRTS），一个包括改善人行道的国家计划， 人行横道和自行车道。SRTS已被证明可以增加儿童积极通勤的百分比 然而，高环境温度可能会成为参与户外体育活动的障碍 因为热不适。了解SRTS对儿童热应激的影响，通过湿测量 球地球仪温度（WBGT）和身体活动水平对健康公平性至关重要，特别是在德克萨斯州 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， 活动和不成比例的高环境温度由于歧视性政策和持续 撤资拟议的研究利用了STREETS研究-SRTS的前后评估 在奥斯汀，得克萨斯州，对儿童的身体活动，提出了三个具体目标：1）构建环境暴露 在干预前后以及在家庭社区使用空间- 以及时间上精确的建模和GPS单元; 2）确定环境温度和建筑物 环境与积极的学校通勤有关; 3）确定测量和记录的方法 儿童及其父母如何体验和感知周围环境暴露。使用 利用GIS中的时空建模和文献中的公式，将对所有学校路线的WBGT进行估计 462名参加街头队列的学生（来自23所接受SRTS的320名学生; 142名学生） 来自10所没有接受SRTS的学校的学生），他们的任务是佩戴加速度计和GPS装置 在SRTS实施前后的四个时期（2018-2022年）连续七天。线性 混合效应模型将用于确定WBGT、建筑环境和儿童之间的关系 体力活动。了解儿童及其父母如何体验和感知周围环境 暴露，参与性方法（调查，绘图，传感器）将与40名三年级学生进行测试， 他们的父母从参加STREETS研究的学校中通过有目的的抽样招募。成为 独立调查员专门从事气候公平，候选人制定了职业发展计划 有三个培训目标：1）熟练使用周围环境数据，特别是 缩小规模的模型输出; 2）发展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 社区参与式研究。职业发展将主要发生在迈克尔和苏珊 奥斯汀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.