Abstract
An Analysis of Lead Poisoning in Cincinnati Children
Biftu Bussa, BS1, Maryse Amin, PhD, MS2 and Camille Jones, MD, MPH2
(1)St. Catherine University, St. Paul, MN, (2)Cincinnati Health Department, Cincinnati, OH
APHA's 2018 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 10 - Nov. 14)
Lead poisoning causes irreversible damage in young children. An elevated blood lead level (BLL) ≥5 µg/dL can cause neurologic damage, learning and behavior problems, and developmental delay. This 5-year retrospective study analyzed the blood lead levels (BLL) of children <72 months of age in the City of Cincinnati, Ohio from 2013-2017 to determine elevated blood lead levels. Data from the Ohio Department of Health on (n=43,535) venous and capillary lead test results from 2013-2017 on Cincinnati children aged <72 months were aggregated into unique cases. An elevated BLL was defined as a venous (2013-2017) or two capillary tests (2013-2014) ≥5 µg/dL. The residential address was geocoded using ArcMap, the 2010 Statistical Neighborhood Approximation was used to assign neighborhood, and ArcMap was used to geographically map the percentage of children with elevated BLL in each neighborhood. Demographic data were gathered from the American Community Survey 2012-2016. Descriptive statistics were analyzed using Microsoft Excel and SAS 9.4®. On average, 33.9% of the eligible Cincinnati children were tested for lead poisoning each year. Of the unique cases (n=26,275) of children, 794 (3.08%) had an elevated BLL; only 11.6% (3,057/26,275) received a second BLL test. The median age at the time of the first test was 15 months of the children tested. The findings show that less than half of eligible Cincinnati children are being tested for lead, which indicates a need for increased screening in the City of Cincinnati.
Environmental health sciences Epidemiology Public health or related research