# Environmental Health Disparities in an Older Population

> **NIH NIH R01** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $747,167

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract
Understanding environmental health disparities for older persons is critical given the unprecedented aging of
the population, with 20% of US persons anticipated to be >65y by 2030, and the elder population becoming
more racially and ethnically diverse. Older persons can be more affected by environmental and socio-
economic status (SES) factors due to baseline health, changing metabolism, or larger cumulative exposures.
Harmful environmental exposures, such as air pollution, often occur in communities facing SES stressors
including deteriorating housing, poor access to health care, high unemployment, crime, and poverty, which
may exacerbate negative health effects. This phenomenon is most pronounced for low income and minority
communities and underlies health disparities. Identifying the most harmful environmental and social factors and
the subpopulations of elderly that are most affected is of paramount importance. Although it is widely agreed
that multiple environmental and SES factors affect health, little is known about their complex interactions. Our
long-term objective is to investigate how environmental and SES factors jointly contribute to health disparities
in the older population. We consider disparities in two separate but related forms: 1) differences in exposures
(e.g., pollution levels) to environmental and SES factors; and 2) differences in health response (e.g., relative
risk) from exposures to environmental and SES factors. This proposal brings together investigators with a long
history of working on environmental health disparities and related advanced spatial and statistical analyses.
Our aims are to: 1) calculate differences in exposures to environmental and SES factors, considered
individually and collectively, for an older population (>65y) in Michigan and North Carolina, and to construct a
highly resolved spatio-temporal data architecture for analysis; 2) calculate differences by subpopulation (e.g.,
race/ethnicity, age, sex, community SES) for associations between environmental and SES factors and cause-
specific emergency cardiovascular and respiratory hospital admissions, emergency department visits, and
mortality; and 3) combine disparities in exposures and disparities in health response to calculate overall
environmental health disparities. Environmental and some SES factors represent modifiable risks through
which we can improve health in our aging population. Analyses will identify the most effective foci for
intervention and policy engagement by identifying the most significant common contributors to environmental
health disparities for the elderly, thereby directly contributing to NIEHS's mission to discover how the
environment affects people in order to promote healthier lives.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10196974
- **Project number:** 5R01MD012769-05
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Michelle L Bell
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $747,167
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-09-26 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10196974

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10196974, Environmental Health Disparities in an Older Population (5R01MD012769-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10196974. Licensed CC0.

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