Maintenance and Enrichment of the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) Cohort

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Reducing health disparities and inequalities among marginalized populations is a top U.S. public health priority. These disparities exist across a wide range of outcomes, including diabetes, hypertension, obesity, asthma, heart disease, cancer, and preterm birth. Similarly, the burden of exposures to multiple environmental exposures is not evenly distributed among populations. The Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors (MADRES) cohort is a prospective pregnancy cohort of more than 1000 predominantly low- income, Hispanic/Latino mother-child pairs in urban Los Angeles, California. MADRES examines environmental and social determinants of maternal and child health outcomes both during and after pregnancy. A wide range of data are collected including interviewer-administered questionnaires and validated instruments, anthropometric and body composition data, and a broad suite of biospecimens from both mother and child. Environmental exposures were assigned to residential addresses of participants across time (e.g., ambient and traffic-related air pollution) or measured in stored biospecimens (e.g., PFAS, metals, emerging chemicals of concern). The MADRES cohort is a unique resource and one of the largest US environmental health disparities cohorts of predominantly Hispanic mother-child pairs from structurally marginalized communities. The proposed project would capitalize on the significant investment to date and would allow for re-engagement of inactive participants, continued follow-up and maintenance of staff infrastructure, collection of biospecimens for future studies, new opportunities for diversifying the environmental health sciences workforce, and increased capacity for data sharing with the scientific community. We propose the following four specific aims: (1) Maintain, enrich and support the continuation of the MADRES cohort of predominantly low-income Hispanic families; (2) Enhance the existing MADRES biospecimen repository to annually collect blood and urine from mothers and blood, urine and saliva from children to preserve for future studies; (3) Expand data sharing and quality assurance protocols for the MADRES cohort; and (4) Provide opportunities for increasing workforce diversity for early-stage investigators from the undergraduate to postdoctoral levels. We will work across the U24 consortium of cohorts to promote data sharing best practices, development of novel metrics of structural racism and determine common measures for conducting inclusive science.