# Collaborative Development of Ethical Report-Back Guidelines for HouseholdExposure Research

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2024 · $414,685

## Abstract

Project Summary
Home-based exposures and poor housing quality contribute to health inequities (e.g., asthma, lead,
reproductive health etc.) and are a driving force behind many environmental injustices. Household exposure
research can inform solutions to these urgent problems. Responsible report-back of individual-level
research results (RBRR) from household exposure studies is essential to promote changes in behavior,
housing provider practices, community action, and policies to improve health. While high level report-back
principles have been developed for environmental health research, these do not provide specific guidance
on the unique ethical challenges of household exposure research. RBRR for household exposure studies
raises a number of ethically contentious issues related to the actionability of results, participants’ housing
status (e.g., income level, owner/renter, public/private housing), and the interests of third parties (including
family members, neighbors, health professionals, landlords and community leaders), among others. This
project aims to promote health equity and improve communication by developing guidelines for RBRR for
household exposure studies in ways that respect participant preferences and inform appropriate action. We
build on a longstanding community partnership with Rochester Energy Efficiency and Weatherization
(RENEW) and actively involve a Stakeholder Advisory Board that represents the diverse perspectives of
community groups, housing providers, IRBs, public health professionals and others who may be affected by
RBRR. We integrate prior report back studies by recruiting participants from several past housing exposure
research studies, including ROC HOME, to provide formative input to Aim 2. Successful completion of this
project will result in: (Aim 1) a philosophically and empirically-informed typology of the key ethical questions
faced by researchers during RBRR of household exposure studies; (Aim 2) a tool for eliciting participants’
preferences for RBRR in household exposure research; and (Aim 3) decision-support guidelines to help
research teams return individual results responsibly. Our collaborative approach will use a rigorous
transdisciplinary framework to fill a crucial gap in report-back guidance for household exposure research
and will serve as a model for future research on report-back of environmental and non-genomic research
results.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10861504
- **Project number:** 1R01ES036237-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Jonathan Herington
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $414,685
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-06-11 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10861504

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10861504, Collaborative Development of Ethical Report-Back Guidelines for HouseholdExposure Research (1R01ES036237-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10861504. Licensed CC0.

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