Epidemiology: Open Access
Open Access

Abstract

The research community has yet to fully characterize environmental health risk factors that are present in all communities
and affect multiple health outcomes but cannot be described using national average statistics and risk estimates. In many
cases, local data to inform risk prioritization is lacking. Although national databases and risk estimates are available for most
environmental issues of concern, communities express concern that summary statistics are not enough to inform their local
assessments. This raises a challenge for researchers: to synthesize information from national databases in a way that allows it to
be disaggregated to elucidate patterns of high exposure and high risk in different populations and in different places. This paper
provides examples from research conducted at Harvard University in collaboration with the United States Environmental
Protection Agency. Implications are discussed for the role of non-governmental organizations such as community based
organizations in gathering and assimilating data is likely to grow as community-based research develops in the future. Federal
databases are limited to providing standardized data with often numerous restrictions. Local data collection is key, and while
it is not always possible to synthesize local data at a national level due to differences in data collection measurements and
techniques, it is recommended that organizations working on the ground with local communities to coordinate their efforts
may have more opportunities to gather and coordinate local data at a large scale than federal agencies.

Biography

Teresa Chahine completed her Doctor of science degree at Harvard School of Public Health, Department of Environmental Health with an interdisciplinary
concentration in gender and health. She is a Research Associate at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, Harvard University, where she serves as
the social entrepreneurship program lead. She teaches Social Entreprenuership in Health and the Environment at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and
Harvard University Extension School. Her new textbook “Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship” will be released by Taylor and Francis in 2016.