Regional (PA, OH, WV) Study of Air Pollution and Health Effects Project
Investigator: Judy Rager, MPH
The Regional (PA, OH, WV) Study of Air Pollution and Health Effects Project conducted by UPACE is assessing the impact of regional air pollutants on asthma and acute myocardial infarction in the tri-state region around Pittsburgh, PA, using readily available air quality data from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia together with data from secondary hospitalization datasets. This study will allow the assessment of the comparability and quality of hospitalization data from different states and the techniques necessary to effectively assess, within a regional context, data that will be available to Network grantees. This study so far has demonstrated that the ease of availability of individual record level hospitalization data may vary from state to state and thus underscores the importance of data sharing agreements for the EPHT network. In addition, although there is much commonality in the variables collected by states from hospital data, there are a number of issues, such as the lack of a pseudo-id as a variable, which may impact on the ability to conduct certain types of analyses, such as a case-crossover study, with the data.
Poster Presentations
Judy Rager, MPH. 2009. Regional (PA, OH, WV) Study of Air Pollution and Health Effects.Tracks2009: The Future of Environmental Public Health Conference. February 2009. Washington DC. [PPT]
