# Environmental Determinants of Sleep Disparities and the Consequences for Low Income Children with Asthma

> **NIH NIH R01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $676,522

## Abstract

Asthma and sleep disordered breathing (SDB) are common chronic diseases that
disproportionately affect Black children and those living in poor neighborhoods. Household
environmental exposures have been shown to increase asthma morbidity and there is strong
biologic rationale that these will impact sleep quality, but to date, there have been limited studies
of the indoor environment and sleep. Our overarching goal is to define home environmental
determinants of sleep disparities and the contribution of sleep disparities to childhood asthma
morbidity among low-income, predominantly Black children living in Baltimore City. The home
environment is critical as children spend the majority of their time indoors, most in their own home
and ~1/3 in the bedroom, the environment most relevant for sleep. We propose to
comprehensively study the bedroom environment, including air quality, allergens, microbes, and
the relationship with sleep quality in children with asthma. Our prior studies have shown that
children in Baltimore City live in homes where bedroom levels of air pollution are three times the
concentrations recommend by the World Health Organization Indoor Air Quality standards and
that mouse allergen, present in high concentrations, is a driver of asthma morbidity in Baltimore.
Bedroom dust and nasal carriage of Staphylococcus aureus are prevalent, and emerging
evidence suggests bedroom exposure to this bacteria and its toxic protein products are
associated with nocturnal asthma. There is biological plausibility that the bedroom environmental
exposures increase inflammation and oxidative stress responses in the upper airway that
contribute to risk for and severity of SDB. While there is emerging evidence that environmental
exposures impact sleep, there is a need for studies with objective assessments in children. Our
research team has extensive experience in the conduct of home environmental monitoring and
simultaneously assessing health outcomes in children. In the proposed project, we aim to
determine the association between a) bedroom environmental exposures (air quality, allergens,
microbes) and sleep quality among children with asthma in Baltimore City 2) bedroom
environmental exposures and upper airway inflammation/oxidative stress 3) sleep quality and
asthma morbidity among children with asthma in Baltimore City. This comprehensive study of
bedroom environment and sleep among inner-city African American children has the potential to
provide foundational evidence for environmental drivers of poor sleep quality that are needed to
design interventions to reduce sleep and asthma health disparities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10914156
- **Project number:** 5R01HL152419-04
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** MEREDITH C MCCORMACK
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $676,522
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-08-15 → 2026-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10914156

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10914156, Environmental Determinants of Sleep Disparities and the Consequences for Low Income Children with Asthma (5R01HL152419-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10914156. Licensed CC0.

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