Date of Award
1-1-2020
Document Type
Open Access Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Public Health (MPH)
Department
School of Public Health
First Advisor
Krystal Pollitt
Abstract
Personal NO2 measurements were taken for a cohort of seventh-grade students (n=25) attending a magnet school in Springfield, MA with an elevated prevalence of pediatric asthma (17.2%). These personal measurements were compared with exposures predicted through a land use regression (LUR) model constructed from built environment and land use characteristics across the area to assess personal exposures in NO2 exposures within the cohort. Springfield, Massachusetts was chosen as the study location because of its elevated prevalence of pediatric asthma (19%) compared to the state average (11%) coupled with the recognized sensitivity of asthmatic children to traffic-related air pollutants. The exposure surface generated will serve as a valuable resource for the analysis health outcomes and risk assessment. Comparison of the different exposure measures suggest that greater variability exists in home than typical individual outdoor exposures, variability which is not captured by the LUR model structure. The findings reaffirm the importance of measuring personal exposures whenever possible to most accurately assess NO2 as an environmental disease risk factor, though LUR models can provide useful measures of outdoor path exposures and trends in spatial distributions of NO2.
Recommended Citation
Esenther, Sarah, "Assessment Of Children’s Personal And Land Use Regression Model-Estimated Exposure To No2 In Springfield, Massachusetts" (2020). Public Health Theses. 1936.
https://elischolar.library.yale.edu/ysphtdl/1936
