The urgency of climate change is spurring increased funding for research on effects on human health. Successful research in this area will greatly increase the knowledge base to inform preparedness, response, and adaptation. Critical to such research are tools that enable clear communication and data harmonization, increase understanding, and support multidisciplinary efforts. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences has added a Climate Change and Human Health Glossary to its suite of research tools designed to facilitate global research on climate change, disasters, and health. This online, searchable glossary defines relevant terms, provides usage context specific to human health, identifies closely related terms, and groups terms into categories—features that will help users at all levels understand and use the terms more confidently in their climate change and health research and policy efforts. This new resource complements other NIEHS resources including the Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal, a curated, searchable database of global peer-reviewed and gray literature and the Disaster Research Response (DR2) Resources Portal, a curated compilation of data collection surveys, research protocols, and other templates ready for immediate application in disaster situations. All three resources include specific content on issues of health disparities and equity. This session will describe the development of the Glossary, its features, and how it will help to expand a common understanding of climate change and health terminology, broaden scientific and policy discussions, and facilitate collaboration. The session will demonstrate how all three NIEHS resources may be used to design innovative research, improve grant writing, inform policy decisions, support community planning efforts, build capacity among medical and public health practitioners, and educate students at all levels.

Understanding the health impacts of climate change and associated extreme events such as wildfires relies on comprehensive, accessible, and harmonized data across multiple disciplines, including climate, environment, sociodemographic, and health. The creation of data ecosystems and resources that facilitate the linkage of these data will benefit end users, including researchers, health care providers, policy and decisionmakers, and community groups, seeking to examine the adverse health consequences of climate change and related health emergencies. With funding from the HHS Office of the Secretary Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund, and as a component of National Institutes and Health (NIH) Climate Change and Health Initiative capacity building efforts, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) is leading a multi-year project to create educational resources and accessible data ecosystem that contains longitudinal data that are practical, user-friendly, and accessible for transdisciplinary research. The session will describe the project and its five main objectives: 1) develop a web-based catalog of climate and health data resources that focus on wildfires, as well as metadata and tools; 2) create standardized, linked climate, health, and sociodemographic data sets; 3) create toolkits to help researchers link their health data to the climate data and vice-versa; 4) develop a use case study focused on wildfires and human health outcomes; 5) incorporate feedback and address end user needs. Regular engagement with a Technical Expert Panel of subject matter experts from government agencies and academic institutions and an informal Scientific Advisory Board will offer opportunities for feedback and guidance. Addressing the health risks from climate change and natural disasters requires suitable climate, environment, social, and health data for research, analysis, and policymaking. In response to this critical need, NIEHS will build infrastructure for a sustainable data ecosystem to advance our ability to identify and mitigate the wide-ranging health impacts of climate change.

Introduction: Asthma is a chronic condition affecting approximately 20 million adults in the United States, characterized by chronic inflammation and narrowing of the lung airways. The development of chronic illnesses such as asthma has been linked to neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation and environmental pollution.

Objective: This study examines the influence of neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, measured by the Distressed Community Index (DCI), on Asthma-associated Emergency Department (ED) visits in Maryland.

Methodology: We conducted a retrospective analysis using the Maryland State Emergency Department Databases (SEDD) from January 2018 to December 2020. Our primary outcome of interest was Asthma-associated hospitalization in the study period. Multivariate analysis was used to determine the association between neighborhood economic deprivation and the prevalence of Asthma in hospital admissions during the study period. We also identified common risk factors for the development of asthma.

Results: The study found 249,367 Asthma-associated ED Visits during the study period, with 56.6% female patients. The racial distribution was as follows: 57.7% non-Hispanic whites, 38.6% non-Hispanic Blacks, and1.9% Hispanics. The study revealed a statistically significant association between Asthma-associated ED visits and DCI. As neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation increases, asthma-associated ED visits are likely to increase. Neighborhoods with the highest socioeconomic deprivation have the highest odds of Asthma-associated ED visits. Compared to prosperous communities (reference), communities classified as Comfortable had an odds ratio (OR) of 1.32 (95% CI 1.28-1.37, P<0.001), Mid-Tier had an OR of 1.43 (95% CI 1.39-1.48, P <0.001), At-Risk had an OR of 1.54 (95% CI 1.48-1.60, P<0.001), and Distressed had an OR of 1.79 (95% CI 1.73-1.85, p <0.001). Other significant predictors of Asthma were obesity, female gender, tobacco smoking, and increasing age.

Conclusion: There is a significant association between Asthma-associated ED visits and neighborhood economic deprivation. The likelihood of ED visits on account of Asthma is highest among residents of the poorest communities.

Climate change is a growing risk to public health and poses unmatched challenges to environmental justice. Public health professionals seek to understand how climate change will impact population health and identify where and how to implement resources to effectively improve health outcomes. Research suggests, climate change will not affect everyone’s health equally; those with co-morbidities, lower socio-economic status, and residing in historically polluted areas are likely to be disproportionately affected. Thus, there is a need to develop a data driven tool that overlays climate risk and population health data to predict how climate change will exacerbate existing health conditions and disparities among vulnerable populations.

The Climate Hazard Risk Explorer is an evidence-based tool that uses Public, Organization-Specific, and Commercial data to synthesize climate risk, associated health effects, and social vulnerability into an easily digestible format to enhance environmental public health situational awareness and advance health equity. This presentation will highlight how this tool can be used to identify current health risks at the Census Tract level, predict the effects of climate change on various health conditions across populations, and inform future public health action. We will discuss actionable steps to implement this tool, including validating climate-health approaches to prepare for future climatic shifts and using the data to design health programs for specific at-risk populations.

When tackling environmental justice, it is difficult to determine what challenges to prioritize given limited resources and minimal knowledge regarding future outcomes. However, joining strong data together removes some opacity from this complex problem. Through our presentation, we hope to reframe the climate issue and show how the Climate Hazard Risk Explorer can be utilized to effectively identify, plan for, and address climate change induced environmental health challenges.