Preliminary Analysis of Chemical and Non-Chemical Stressors Using PRAPARE to Assess Birth Outcomes
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Children and adults are exposed to a variety of chemical and non-chemical stressors from all facets of daily life. These stressors, alone and together, can lead to changes in health and well-being. Our research approach seeks to understand these complex relationships and their impact on health outcomes. The National Children’s Study Vanguard Study database contains a large amount of environmental, survey, and outcome data. Data were collected from more than 5,000 mothers in the pilot studies which ran from 2009-2014. Secondary analysis of the available datasets provides a unique opportunity to explore approaches for combining quantitative and qualitative data. One approach is to use PRAPARE (Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients' Assets, Risks, and Experiences), a national standardized tool for categorizing non-chemical stressors into social determinants of health (SDoH) clusters, to generate scores. Cluster scores were divided into three separate groups to describe SDoH attributes for each participant: low (0-2 SDoH), medium (2-4 SDoH), and high (5-9 SDoH). Maternal biomarker measurements for chemicals such as BPA, phthalates, PAHs, and pesticides were organized into tertiles. PRAPARE scores and chemical tertiles were combined and used to assess associations between chemical and non-chemical stressors and child birth weight. Lower birth weight has been associated with various chemicals including PAHs, phthalates, and pesticides as well as non-chemical stressors. This poster will highlight preliminary findings.