Into the Great Unknown: Using Medical Records to Understand the Social and Economic Distribution of Air Quality Health Risks.

In the decade following the revision of air quality standards specific to particulate matter, research largely outside of the social sciences began linking real and observable human health effects to the size, composition, and type of particles in the air we breathe. Missing from this expanding line of inquiry are investigations into the social and economic distributions of health risks from poor air quality. Using over 2 million medical records from a diverse group of individuals residing in Houston, TX, linked to demographic and environmental data based on patient's address, we investigate 1) whether air quality risks persist after considering the sociodemographic characteristics of individuals and the places they live and 2) whether the risks posed by poor air quality are modified by these individual and place-based characteristics. In doing so, we describe the impressive potential of this approach for understanding health disparities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]