# Project 1: The Environmental Riskscape, Disasters and Obstetric Outcomes

> **NIH NIH P50** · BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE · 2020 · $328,033

## Abstract

Despite advances in health care, African-Americans (AA) continue to experience a disproportionate burden of
poor obstetric outcomes. This is alarming as pregnancy is a window of future health and many obstetric
outcomes, such as preterm birth, are associated with severe morbidity and mortality for both the mother and her
infant and result in high societal and economic costs. Unfortunately, the origin of racial disparities in obstetric
outcomes does not appear to be genetic nor fully explained by individual-level factors; thus, we must look toward
the broader context in the physical, built, and social environments to mitigate racial disparities in maternal health.
Because communities of color and low socioeconomic status experience a higher burden of chemical exposures,
in part due to the proximity of their neighborhoods to key exposure sources (e.g., industry and hazardous waste
sites), ‘environment’ has been hypothesized to be a driver of racial disparities in obstetric outcomes. Two classes
of pollutants with historic contamination in Houston, TX are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and metals,
which have each been positively associated with preterm birth. Additionally, under an environmental riskscape
framework, place-based stressors may also contribute to racial disparities in maternal health by directly
influencing disease risk and by modifying women’s susceptibility to chemical exposures. Enhanced
understanding of the role of the riskscape, and mixtures of chemical and non-chemical stressors, in racial
disparities in obstetric outcomes would promote efforts to design successful interventions and improve the
wellbeing of health disparity populations. Finally, Houston is a disaster-prone area, which may result in increased
exposures to chemical, biological and non-chemical stressors that may be heightened among health disparity
populations. Our goal is to mitigate maternal and infant health disparities in an overburdened population living in
a disaster-prone region. To achieve this goal, the Objective of this Research Project, The Environmental
Riskscape, Disasters and Obstetric Outcomes, is to utilize a large-scale perinatal biobank and data repository
(PeriBank) at Baylor College of Medicine to characterize racial disparities in the riskscape of AA and non-
Hispanic white (NHW) pregnant women in Houston, to assess associations between the mixture of chemical and
non-chemical stressors in the riskscape on preterm birth, and explore the impact of a natural disaster of
unprecedented magnitude (Hurricane Harvey) on racial disparities in chemical exposures. Through the
application of a riskscape-based approach paired with statistical methods to address mixture effects, the results
from this study will enhance our understanding of the roles of chemical and non-chemical stressors in racial
disparities in preterm birth in a disaster-prone region. This work will lay the foundation for future studies to
improve our understanding of drivers of ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10062087
- **Project number:** 1P50MD015496-01
- **Recipient organization:** BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
- **Principal Investigator:** Hamisu Salihu
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $328,033
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-07-16 → 2025-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10062087

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10062087, Project 1: The Environmental Riskscape, Disasters and Obstetric Outcomes (1P50MD015496-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10062087. Licensed CC0.

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