# Pregnancy-Associated Mortality

> **NIH NIH R01** · TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA · 2020 · $242,616

## Abstract

SUMMARY
Broader contextual characteristics may be key to understanding maternal mortality. The public
health exposome approach allows for the simultaneous evaluation of individual characteristics
and behaviors within the context of environmental exposures from the natural, built, and social
environments. Our conceptual model addresses the intersection of individuals' biological,
behavioral, and social characteristics within (and inseparable from) the context of the
environments in which they live. The inequitable distribution of unhealthy environmental
exposures therefore produces racialized or socioeconomic disparities in maternal mortality at
the population level. The overall goal of this supplement is to develop, using an exposome-wide
computational approach, multi-level models incorporating individual and environmental-level
predictors of maternal mortality, both for the United States as a whole, and Louisiana
specifically. This will build on the parent project's aim of addressing how social contexts
increase risk for pregnancy-related mortality. Datasets developed in the parent R01 – county-
level maternal mortality estimates from all US states 2005-2018 and individual-level estimates
from Louisiana 2010-2017 - will be linked to the public health exposome database, a large data
repository (>55,000 variables) containing measures of the natural, built, and social
environments for 3,141 counties and county equivalents, and spanning over 15 years. This
provides spatial-temporal, contextual environmental data that can be analyzed at the county
level or linked to residential addresses. High-dimensional computational methods will be applied
to multilevel analysis to identify the aspects of the environment that are most strongly
associated with maternal mortality. By examining the results from the parent grant, the national-
level analysis, and an individual-level analysis of a single state, we will establish a
comprehensive picture of the ecology of maternal mortality.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10200401
- **Project number:** 3R01HD092653-03S1
- **Recipient organization:** TULANE UNIVERSITY OF LOUISIANA
- **Principal Investigator:** Maeve E Wallace
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $242,616
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2018-08-27 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10200401

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10200401, Pregnancy-Associated Mortality (3R01HD092653-03S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-21 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10200401. Licensed CC0.

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