2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium

Taral Patel (public health), Sophie Habashy (public health), Jacqueline Rodriguez-Stanley

Faculty mentor: Samuele Zilioli

Abstract

Asthma negatively affects the quality of life of those who suffer from it, with the acknowledgment that the African American/Black community is disproportionately afflicted by the disease. Research suggests that increased atmospheric particulate matter among other pollutants is correlated with higher rates of reported asthma symptoms and hospitalizations.

The present study describes the methodology of cross-referencing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported daily particulate matter 2.5 (PM2.5) with participant laboratory visits with the goal of allowing researchers to assess the effect of this pollutant with concurrent reports of psychosocial and asthma measures. Part of this data comes from the Asthma in the Lives of Families Today study which investigated psychosocial predictors of asthma-related health among African American children from the Detroit area between 2011-2018. Determining PM2.5 levels on lab visit days was conducted in multiple steps. Firstly, participants' zip codes were used to determine their geographical census block (i.e., GEOID). Next, GEOIDs were matched to the most closely located EPA PM2.5 sites of the twelve stationed in Wayne County.

After the EPA site was matched to the participant, the PM2.5 measurement on the day of each participant's ALOFT visit was identified. This methodological approach provided a clear air pollution reference on the date of lab visits, allowing ALOFT researchers to investigate its specific and subsequent impact on child asthma health.

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