# Project 3: Maternal Exposure to Environmental Hazards and Psychosocial Stressors and Postpartum Allostatic Load

> **NIH NIH P50** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $352,635

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT—PROJECT 3 
 Social inequalities related to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic (SES) status lead to spatial patterning in 
neighborhood risk factors, where certain groups such as Hispanics are disproportionately exposed to 
environmental hazards (e.g., air pollution, toxic releases) and place-based social stressors such as crime, 
poverty and deprivation. This “double jeopardy” contributes to their increased susceptibility and to persistent 
maternal health disparities, with Hispanics at a significant disadvantage compared to whites in terms of 
pregnancy-related maternal morbidity and mortality and access to postpartum health care. Pregnancy and early 
postpartum years are also a time of high residential mobility (i.e., address moves), which is important to capture 
to better inform exposure assessment of not only the residence but also the full geographic and temporal context 
around it, including the built, physical and chemical environment which may also contribute to health disparities. 
One health indicator thought to contribute to increased susceptibility within disparity populations is allostatic load 
(AL), where allostasis refers to the body’s multisystemic ability to regulate internal physiology in response to 
actual and anticipated objective or perceived stressors. The AL model posits that repeated, chronic exposure to 
hazards and stressors can dysregulate the body’s adaptive systems leading to “wear and tear” on organ systems 
and negative outcomes over the life course, such as cardiovascular, cognitive and stress-related diseases, with 
important racial and ethnic differences. Air pollution, social stressors and neighborhood socioeconomic 
deprivation have all been associated with AL. Yet very few studies have investigated the contribution of joint 
exposure to environmental hazards and social stressors during pregnancy and postpartum on AL, particularly in 
racial and ethnic minorities and low SES groups. Our project interrogates this question in our recently established 
MADRES pregnancy cohort of predominantly low income, Hispanic women in Los Angeles, CA. We aim to first 
understand distinct patterns in neighborhood and residential environmental exposures and social stressors in 
relation to residential mobility during pregnancy and postpartum, and then investigate their effects on maternal 
AL as an early indicator of stress maladaptation in the first four years postpartum. In addition, we will investigate 
whether individual-level characteristics such as demographics, psychosocial stressors and acculturation modify 
these effects using a multilevel framework. Our proposed project will contribute to advancing the science of 
environmental health disparities by providing a scientific basis for how the environment interacts with social 
stressors across multiple levels to impact physiological mechanisms that may signal early stress maladaptation 
and increased risk before onset of disease in disparity p...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10058752
- **Project number:** 9P50MD015705-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Rima Habre
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $352,635
- **Award type:** 9
- **Project period:** 2015-09-01 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10058752

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10058752, Project 3: Maternal Exposure to Environmental Hazards and Psychosocial Stressors and Postpartum Allostatic Load (9P50MD015705-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10058752. Licensed CC0.

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