ENVIRONMENTAL EXPOSURES AND CHILDREN’S HEALTH

Abstract

Climate change-driven physicochemical exposures, like extreme heat, wildfire and hurricanes are increasingly being investigated in the public health literature for their potential association with health outcomes. It is important to investigate children’s health specifically in the context of the exposures, as children’s physiological immaturity can make them uniquely vulnerable to these stressors because of their limited adaptive capacity. This dissertation investigates three distinct epidemiologic questions within this sphere, examining: 1) whether Extreme Heat Event Exposure associates with Kindergarteners’ Reading and Mathematics Performance, 2) whether wildfire smoke exposure affects respiratory/cardiovascular pediatric inpatient hospitalization in Alaska, 2015-2019, and 3) the association between exposure to Hurricane Irma and Internalizing, Externalizing and Total Problem Behaviors Among South Floridian Adolescents. Data for each of these studies was obtained from different sources, including the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort, hospital administrative data from the Alaska Department of Health and the NIH’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study. Where appropriate, external data was linked to these datasets as a means of linking exposures to health outcome data. In the first study, we found weak evidence of an association between exposure to lagged extreme heat events and children’s performance on kindergarteners’ mathematics and reading performance. In the second study, we observed a number of nonsignificant, minor associations between wildfire smoke exposure and respiratory and cardiovascular inpatient hospitalization among Alaskan children. In the third study, we observed a number of nonsignificant, minor associations between exposure to Hurricane Irma and internalizing, externalizing and total problem behaviors using data from Baseline and Wave 2 of the ABCD study. In summary, this research indicates the need for larger, more robust samples to investigate children’s health outcomes.