# Administrative Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH · 2020 · $221,125

## Abstract

The primary objective of our Center is to understand and reduce environmental health
disparities (EHDs) by conducting three fully-integrated research projects applying novel
methods in epidemiology, exposure science, and cumulative risk assessment, with strong
community engagement across the Center. The Center emphasizes multiple health outcomes
across the life course with evidence for EHDs (birth outcomes, childhood growth rates, and
cardiovascular mortality), in Massachusetts and within two low-income majority-minority
communities (Chelsea and Dorchester). The influence of housing and the neighborhood
environment on multiple exposures and health outcomes are emphasized throughout the
Center. Within Project 3, we use novel geospatial data and simulation techniques to provide an
extensive and highly resolved set of chemical and non-chemical stressor exposures, including
spatially-resolved air pollution and temperature data generated in Project 1. In this supplement,
we will leverage our Project 3 geospatial database of numerous social, housing, demographic,
and environmental exposures across Massachusetts to evaluate racial/ethnic disparities in
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. Our geospatial vulnerability data will be linked
with individual-level COVID-19 data with address-level geocodes and daily temporal resolution,
provided by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. We will identify vulnerability
factors associated with disparities in incidence and severity of COVID-19 infection across cities
and towns in Massachusetts, modeling predictors of case incidence per 10,000 persons and
hospitalizations per 10,000 persons by city/town over time. We will also apply novel methods to
characterize spatiotemporal clustering, allowing us to determine differences in spatiotemporal
patterns of COVID-19 spread within and between cities/towns, including as a function of
individual characteristics. Finally, we will examine differences in city/town-specific policies,
implementation of state policy, and resident perception of public health recommendations, to
determine if observed patterns can be explained in part by between-city differences. With these
analyses we will identify COVID-19 hot spots in Massachusetts and how cases spread within
and between communities, including the hardest-hit majority-minority communities, and we will
determine the vulnerability factors that best explain these exposure and health outcome
disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10220200
- **Project number:** 3P50MD010428-05S1
- **Recipient organization:** HARVARD UNIVERSITY D/B/A HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
- **Principal Investigator:** Francine Laden
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $221,125
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2015-07-24 → 2021-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10220200

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10220200, Administrative Core (3P50MD010428-05S1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10220200. Licensed CC0.

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