Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 21, 2025
A Modified QuEChERS-HPLC Method for Detection of Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Zebrafish Embryos Exposed to Fine Particulate Matter
Published on: June 13, 2025
The public health exposome and pregnancy-related mortality in the United States: a high-dimensional computational
E W Harville1, S K Grady2, M A Langston2
1Department of Epidemiology, Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, New Orleans, LA, USA. eharvill@tulane.edu.
Background:
Racial inequities in maternal mortality in the U.S. continue to be stark.
Methods:
The 2015-2018, 4-year total population, county-level, pregnancy-related mortality ratio (PRM; deaths per 100,000 live births; National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), restricted use mortality file) was linked with the Public Health Exposome (PHE). Using data reduction techniques, 1591 variables were extracted from over 62,000 variables for use in this analysis, providing information on the relationships between PRM and the social, health and health care, natural, and built environments. Graph theoretical algorithms and Bayesian analysis were applied to PHE/PRM linked data to identify latent networks.
Results:
PHE variables most strongly correlated with total population PRM were years of potential life lost and overall life expectancy. Population-level indicators of PRM were overall poverty, smoking, lack of exercise, heat, and lack of adequate access to food.
Conclusions:
In this high-dimensional analysis, overall life expectancy, poverty indicators, and health behaviors were found to be the strongest predictors of pregnancy-related mortality. This provides strong evidence that maternal death is part of a broader constellation of both similar and unique health behaviors, social determinants and environmental exposures as other causes of death.
More Related Videos
06:55Inverse Probability of Treatment Weighting Propensity Score using the Military Health System Data Repository and National Death Index
Published on: January 8, 2020
06:39Using a Murine Model of Psychosocial Stress in Pregnancy as a Translationally Relevant Paradigm for Psychiatric Disorders in Mothers and Infants
Published on: June 13, 2021
Related Concept Videos
01:26Introduction to Epidemiology
01:25Statistical Methods for Analyzing Epidemiological Data
01:18Steps in Outbreak Investigation
01:21Causality in Epidemiology
01:25Strategies for Assessing and Addressing Confounding
Confounding can be addressed at both the design phase of a study and through analytical methods after data...
01:23Types of Biopharmaceutical Studies: Controlled and Non-Controlled Approaches
Non-controlled studies, commonly employed for initial exploration, lack a control group, rendering them susceptible to biases and external influences. In contrast,...