# Air pollution exposures and children's health:  mediation and interaction in a counterfactual framework

> **NIH NIH R00** · COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $249,000

## Abstract

Project Summary / Abstract
Exposure to air pollution is an established risk factor for asthma, reduced lung function as well as inflammatory
and oxidative processes which are in turn linked with obesity and diabetes. Risk for these adverse outcomes
begins early in childhood and well-documented racial/ethnic differences and social disparities render minority
children especially vulnerable, yet these populations are underrepresented in the literature. Analysis for truly
representative effect estimates should consider a wide array of genetic, social and environmental factors,
biologic pathways from exposure to disease, with consideration for causal mediators and interactions.
Mediation and interaction analysis can also aid in determining the transportability of estimated effects from one
population to another. However, estimation and interpretability of target parameters in mediation analysis is
complicated by issues such as mediator-outcome interactions, non-linearities, and exposure-induced
confounding, which cannot be addressed using traditional regression approaches. My long-term career goals
are to assess optimal interventions on environmental health risk factors that best reduce overall risk in
populations of interest. I will utilize advanced epidemiologic methods maximinzing internal validity and
efficiency of estimation of target. I will expand on existing methods for estimation of effects in the presence of
time varying exposures and covariates as well as exposure-induced mediator outcome confounding
(estimation of controlled direct effects and the randomized intervention analogues for the natural direct and
indirect effects) which cannot be addressed with traditional regression approaches. The proposed methodology
will be suitable for assessment of potential interventions on continuous exposures, which will be especially
beneficial in the area of environmental epidemiology. In Aims 1 & 2 of this proposal I will use these proposed
methods to assess direct, indirect and total effects of air pollution exposures on risk of asthma, overall lung
function and metabolic syndrome, within a counterfactual framework. I am well suited to perform the proposed
research based on 1) my past experience in environmental health and advanced methods and counterfactual
approaches 2) the exceprional interdisciplinary mentoring team I have assembled and 3) the unique research
opportunity offered by the datasets in the proposal, comprised largely of minority children. This proposed study
will enable me to quantify mediated effects of air pollution exposures in especially vulnerable populations. I will
be advised by a world-class team of mentors to expand my expertise in integrating advanced epidemiologic
methods with causal inference applications (e.g., machine learning and efficient estimators of causal inference
parameters) in environmental epidemiological studies; epigenetic and exposomic factors as potential modifiers
or mediators of effect; and health dispar...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10112907
- **Project number:** 5R00ES027511-05
- **Recipient organization:** COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Andreas Neophytou
- **Activity code:** R00 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $249,000
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-03-15 → 2024-02-29

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10112907

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10112907, Air pollution exposures and children's health:  mediation and interaction in a counterfactual framework (5R00ES027511-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10112907. Licensed CC0.

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