Consideration of age-related changes in behavior trends in older adults in assessing risks of environmental exposures

Details

• Personal Author:
  Johns DO ; Meng Q ; Moya J ; Tuttle L
• Description:
  Objectives: To explore age-related behavior differences between older and younger adults, and to review how older adult activity patterns are considered in evaluating the potential risk of exposure to environmental pollutants. Methods: Activity pattern data and their use in risk assessments were analyzed using the U.S. EPA Exposure Factors Handbook (EFH), U.S. EPA Consolidated Human Activity Pattern Database (CHAD), and peer-reviewed literature describing human health risk assessments. Results: The characterization by age of some factors likely to impact older adults' exposures remains limited. We demonstrate that age-related behavior trends vary between younger and older adults, and these differences are rarely explicitly considered in environmental health risk assessment for older adults. Discussion: Incorporating older adult exposure factors into risk assessments may be challenging because of data gaps and difficulty in defining and appropriately binning older adults. Additional data related to older adult exposure factors are warranted for evaluating risk among this susceptible population. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Age Factors Behavior Environmental Exposure Environmental Monitoring Environmental Pollution Occupational Health Public Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Age-factors Author Keywords: Activity Patterns Behavior-patterns Environmental-exposure Environmental-hazards Environmental-pollution Exposure-assessment Exposure Factors Humans Information-retrieval-systems Older Adults Physiological-factors Physiological-response Public-health Risk-analysis Risk-factors Risk Assessment

  More +
• ISSN:
  0898-2643
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  District of Columbia ; New Jersey ; North Carolina ; OSHA Region 2 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DRDS - Division of Respiratory Disease Studies
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  243-273
• Volume:
  25
• Issue:
  2
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20042189
• Citation:
  J Aging Health 2013 Mar; 25(2):243-273
• Contact Point Address:
  Douglas O. Johns, PhD, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, 1095 Willowdale Road, Mailstop H2900, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
• Email:
  djohns@cdc.gov
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Journal of Aging and Health
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:33252e512657dcf240d511610100f02ed643929d247fbfb546043b969d360d2b3a8aea1221ab07413c8dc223e0a6e3350223fb2a87859e0662dd93b40c9e6464
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/194491/cdc_194491_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.46 MB ]