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Title: Cal Enviro Screen Dashboard

Subtitle: A dashboard for PHW251B assignment 4

Data source: CalEnviroScreen 4.0 from the OEHHA

Background: The CalEnviroScreen 4.0 was developed by the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment in California. The purpose was to assess the cumulative impact of environmental pollution and social vulnerability in California communities.There are a variety of scores utilized by the screen, that serve as indicators of environmental, health, and socioeconomic factors.The dataset population includes all of the census tracts in California from the most recently available time period (time frame). The data was released in October 2021 and uses Race/Ethnicity data from 2015 - 2019 American Community Survey. Numerous environmental and socioeconomic factors has been linked to a variety of health outcomes. However, due to limited resources and persistent challenges in eliminating healthcare disparities, more work is needed to prevent negative health outcomes. Low birth weights is one example of a persistent health problem that has been shown to be affected by both pollution and socioeconomic status.

Our question is: is pollution burden in a census tract associated with low birth weight babies in California?

Low birth weight is an important factor that influences infant health. Low birth weight is associated with a higher risk of developmental delays, chronic health problems, and even mortality. By exploring how poverty and pollution burden interact to impact low birth weight, we can better inform public health interventions in vulnerable communities.

Results: We examined all the census tracts that fall within the 50th percentile in terms of population (+/- 0.5) and graphed the relationship between pollution burden and percent low birth weight (figure 1).We also pearson correlation which revealed an r of 0.17. Based on our observations we have noticed that for the median 50th percent of census tracts, pollution does show a correlation with birth weights. However, the association is weak. In Figure 2, we chose an interactive graphic to allow you to see which locations are suffering from disproportionately lower birth weights. When you click on the areas with lower birth weights, you can see the racial and ethnic breakdowns for each section.

Data

[1] 1.727236e-54