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Your Environment. Your Health.

Community Resiliency, Environmental Action, and Collaborations for Health (REACH) Equity Study

Study Background

Looking to join this study?

Visit the Join an NIEHS Study Website

For More Information

Inequalities in COVID-19 infection, hospitalization, and death in understudied, underserved, underrepresented, and underreported (U4) groups of people are severe. A growing number of studies have assessed the impact of individual risk factors. But few studies have assessed which factors are the greatest drivers of COVID-19 disparities from a wider perspective.

This is a cross-sectional population-based survey designed within a syndemic framework to characterize the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on U4 women. We hypothesize that U4 women are experiencing and will have experienced a worsening of mental, physical, and socio-economic status as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and that pre-pandemic indicators of U4 status and related exposures will be associated with adverse mental, physical, and SES effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to facing disproportionately higher environmental exposures, problems with healthcare access and quality, and increased prevalence of a broad range of chronic health conditions, U4 women face particularly high disparities in reproductive-health outcomes that have the potential to be strongly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic including preterm birth, complications of pregnancy, and maternal mortality. The study ultimately seeks to collect baseline data for a long-term follow-up study of U4 women, as well as identify high impact targets for public health interventions to build resiliency in U4 communities.

All participants will complete a 45-minute baseline survey. Women ages 18–50 will be invited to complete an optional 15-minute reproductive survey. Participants have the option to provide biological samples including blood, urine, saliva, household dust, and toenails and to wear a personal exposure (wrist) band.

Eligibility Criteria

  • Females who are African American or Black, Hispanic or Latino, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, or other Pacific Islander.
  • Aged 18 years or older.
  • Reside in North Carolina.

Principal Investigator

Joan P. Packenham
Joan P. Packenham, Ph.D.
Director, NIEHS Office of Human Research and Community Engagement (OHRCE);
DIR CRB
Tel 984-287-4413
Fax 919-541-9854
packenhm@niehs.nih.gov
P.O. Box 12233
Mail Drop CU-02
Durham, N.C. 27709
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