While ambient air pollution measurements provide a good picture of the overall exposure environment, personal air pollution exposure assessment can provide critical insight, especially in settings like Eastern Africa where the relationship between ambient concentrations and personal exposures is not well characterized. A sub-study of the Eastern Africa Children’s Health (EACH) study, the Personal Air Pollution Exposure Assessment Study, will be conducted to assess personal air pollution exposure in a subset of 300 EACH study children and their mothers in Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya for a total of 900 mother-child dyads. Personal exposure assessments will be conducted using wearable PM2.5 and carbon monoxide (CO) monitors, and GPS data loggers. Researchers will carry out two 48-hour deployments to capture seasonal variation, and will administer a questionnaire at pickup to help characterize activity during the sampling period. Personal exposure assessments for children and their mothers will provide valuable information that researchers will analyze with health indicators collected in the larger EACH study, as well as serve as the basis the Mothers’ Health Study in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya, the Ambulatory Blood Pressure Study in Uganda, and the Cognitive Performance Assessment Study in Kenya.
The Personal Air Pollution Exposure Assessment Study will be initiated in a phased approach in conjunction with the EACH study in each study site by researchers from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia; Makerere University, Uganda; and University of Nairobi, Kenya for a period of one year between 2023-2026 using common protocols and study designs.