查看文章

While wide-scale public health prevention efforts have significantly decreased national teen birth rates, disparities in teen births persist at local levels. The aims of this dissertation were to conduct a spatial analysis of maternal teen birth status in all births surrounding the New Bedford Harbor Superfund site (MA, USA) over two distinct time periods (1992-1998 and 2002-2008); to assess whether joint exposures of modeled prenatal chemical exposures elevate risk of subsequent teen birth in infant females born between 1992-1998 near NBH (MA Birth Record Cohort); and, to ascertain whether similar or different combinations of joint exposures affect subsequent teen birth in New Bedford Cohort (NBC) females. The spatial analyses in Chapter 2 demonstrated a statistically significant hot spot of elevated risk of teen birth west of the NBH only for the later time period (2002-2008). Chapter 3 employed predictive exposure …