Human health risk assessment – does neighborhood matter?

Studies have shown that socioeconomically disadvantaged neighborhoods experience poorer health outcomes than more affluent communities. Evidence suggests these poorer health outcomes may result, in part, from exposure to multiple environmental stressors, with environment being defined broadly to include such factors as poor nutrition, indoor and outdoor pollution, poverty, and other inducers of stress. Additionally, research suggests that a lifetime of chronic psychosocial stress may leave imprinted epigenetic changes in one’s DNA that modify translation and transcription patterns and ultimately contribute to increased susceptibility to disease.  This presentation will set the stage for the session by providing a broad overview of why neighborhood matters when looking at environmental health outcomes.