# Drinking Water Arsenic, Blood Pressure, and Ischemic Stroke in the REGARDS Study

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM · 2022 · $111,375

## Abstract

ABSTRACT
The goal of this highly interdisciplinary project, which draws on epidemiological, hydrological, and biostatistical
expertise, is to use spatial data linkage to connect drinking water arsenic data (or model predictions) to
cardiometabolic health outcomes in the REasons for Geographic And Racial Differences in Stroke
(REGARDS) Study. The REGARDS Study is a biracial (African American and white) cohort with participants
recruited from across the United States, with emphasis on the Southeastern United States. The large sample
size and geographic variation in this cohort make it an ideal resource for spatial drinking water arsenic
epidemiology. This proposed work will support the development and refinement of a novel data analytic
pipeline, which will allow integration of multiple data streams (community water system public supply water
quality data, and groundwater predictions relevant for private wells) to give epidemiological inferences about
drinking water arsenic and cardiometabolic health outcomes. The primary outcomes of the study are blood
pressure at the REGARDS Study baseline visit, hypertension prevalence at the REGARDS Study baseline
visit, and incident ischemic stroke among participants in the REGARDS Study at risk of incident ischemic
stroke at baseline. The study will consider potential differences in response to arsenic according to putative
effect modifiers (e.g., sex, race). Successful completion of the project aims will not only address significant
knowledge gaps about drinking water arsenic’s potential salience to cardiometabolic health in the United
States, but also provide a highly innovative data analysis pipeline that can be the foundation for future drinking
water health research in the United States.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10515830
- **Project number:** 1R21HL159574-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA AT BIRMINGHAM
- **Principal Investigator:** Matthew O. Gribble
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $111,375
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-08-15 → 2024-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10515830

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10515830, Drinking Water Arsenic, Blood Pressure, and Ischemic Stroke in the REGARDS Study (1R21HL159574-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10515830. Licensed CC0.

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