# Early life exposure to the natural, built, and social environments and incident hypertension

> **NIH NIH R01** · BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL · 2022 · $636,988

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Over a third of adults in the United States were previously estimated to have hypertension, defined since 2003
as a blood pressure of 140/90mm Hg. This prevalence is expected to increase throughout the population, but
especially among younger adults, given the recent American College of Cardiology (ACC) and American Heart
Association (AHA) update to the definition of hypertension to 130/80mm Hg. The ACC/AHA anticipate that the
new definition will result in a tripling of prevalence of hypertension in men under 45 and a doubling among women
under 45. Therefore, risk factors among young adults are critical to assess. Diet, obesity, and physical activity
are known risk factors, and a growing body of evidence suggests that exposures to air pollution are also
associated with risk. However, to date, no study has been able to examine the role of multiple environmental
exposures throughout childhood on risk of subsequent hypertension in adulthood, nor how environmental
exposures interact with features of the built and social environments to influence risk. The objectives of our study
are (1) to determine how features of the total environment experienced during childhood are associated with
incident hypertension during adulthood; (2) to examine effect modification of the associations of features of the
total environment experienced during childhood with incident hypertension; and (3) to explore how known risk
factors of hypertension mediate the associations of the total environment on risk of incident hypertension. We
will use the unique resources of the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS) to meet these objectives. GUTS is a
prospective cohort study of children whose mothers are participants in the ongoing Nurses’ Health Study II who
were first enrolled when they were 9-15 years of age and are currently 22-38 years of age. We will append
information on multiple chemical stressors (particulate matter (PM2.5, PM10, PM2.5-10), NO2, ozone), physical
stressors (temperature, humidity, noise, light at night, ultraviolet radiation), features of the built and natural
environments (proximity to roadways, greenness, blue space, walkability, population density) to the residential
addresses of each participant throughout childhood. We will combine the environmental factors with time-varying
data collected on social factors (demographics, family socioeconomic status, family make-up and interactions,
relationships, team/club participation, experiences with violence/abuse), mental health scales/symptoms,
activities/behaviors (e.g. diet and physical activity), and inherent characteristics (e.g. age, sex/gender, race, age
at pubertal development). We expect our findings to provide valuable information on the role of childhood
exposures on subsequent disease in adulthood, as well as how exposures to multiple factors interact or mediate
these exposures, providing valuable information for individual and population level prevention, future risk
assessments, and policy...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10375447
- **Project number:** 5R01ES029840-04
- **Recipient organization:** BRIGHAM AND WOMEN'S HOSPITAL
- **Principal Investigator:** Francine Laden
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $636,988
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-04-02 → 2024-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10375447

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10375447, Early life exposure to the natural, built, and social environments and incident hypertension (5R01ES029840-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10375447. Licensed CC0.

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