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The Spatial Relationships among Neurotoxicant Exposure, Child Admissions, and Mental Health Assessment Scores: How do they Interact in the State of Ohio?

Massatti, Richard Roland
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365542600

Abstract Details

2013, Doctor of Philosophy, Ohio State University, Social Work.
In 2007, billions of pounds of known and suspected neurological toxicants were released into the air and water of the United States. Ohio had the dubious distinction of being one of the worst offenders because it was in the top-five emitters nationally (U.S. EPA, 2009a). While environmental toxicants are harmful to everyone, children are especially vulnerable because of the rapid growth and development that occurs throughout infancy and childhood (NRC, 1993). Acute or chronic exposure to these chemicals can cause a variety of psychiatric symptoms in children because they have the capacity to bypass or degrade the blood-brain barrier (Gallo, 2008). This ecologic study investigated spatial relationships between neurotoxicant exposure and mental illness. Theories related to deep ecology and children’s increased vulnerability informed the research agenda and suggested that children would be negatively impacted by neurotoxicants. Two basic questions guided the study: 1) How do neurotoxicant hazard quotients/indices impact child admissions, and 2) How do neurotoxicant hazard quotients/indices impact mental health assessment scores? The research design controlled for several macro-level (e.g., child poverty) and micro-level (e.g., race) variables based upon prior research. Data from the Ohio Department of Mental Health, the National-scale Air Toxics Assessment, and American Community Survey were united and modeled with geostatistical software packages (e.g., ArcMap 10.0). Address data were successfully geocoded for 93 percent of all child records. Almost 68,000 admission records for youth, ages 5-17, were aggregated to the census tract level. After developing census tract admission rates, Empirical Bayes smoothing was used to correct for census tract with small numbers of admissions. Ordinary least squares regression was used to develop global parsimonious models and geographic weighted regression (GWR) was used to examine local relationships. GWR models explained a large percentage of the variance in child admissions (46%) and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (AD-HD) admissions (40%); however, the total hazard quotient for neurotoxicants was not statistically significant in either model. The GWR model for pervasive developmental disorder only explained five percent of the variation in admissions, and the model for AD-HD with the manganese hazard index only explained 15 percent of the variation in admissions. GWR models associated with mental health assessment scores explained a moderate percentage of the variance in hopefulness (39%) and problem severity (39%) assessment scores. Child functioning was the only outcomes variable associated with a neurotoxicant (i.e., solvents). While this model explained 58 percent of the variation in child functioning, it must be interpreted with caution because of the high degree of local multicollinearity on the western edge of the state. Findings from this study suggest neurotoxicants may play a role in child AD-HD admissions and child functioning scores, but more research needs to be conducted to validate these findings. Future researchers could focus on smaller geographic areas instead of the state or use different statistical techniques like spatial dependence modeling or hierarchical linear modeling. Finally, they could conduct similar research other populations to expand the generalizability of the findings.
Theresa Early (Advisor)
Desheng Liu (Committee Member)
Carla Curtis (Committee Member)
Keith Warren (Committee Member)
J. R. Wilkins, III (Committee Member)
222 p.
Geography; Mental Health; Public Health; Social Work
Mental Health; Child Admissions; Assessment; Hopefulness; Functioning; Problem Severity; Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Pervasive Developmental Disorder; Neurotoxicant Exposure; Geographic Weighted Regression

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Citations

  • Massatti, R. R. (2013). The Spatial Relationships among Neurotoxicant Exposure, Child Admissions, and Mental Health Assessment Scores: How do they Interact in the State of Ohio? [Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365542600

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Massatti, Richard. The Spatial Relationships among Neurotoxicant Exposure, Child Admissions, and Mental Health Assessment Scores: How do they Interact in the State of Ohio? 2013. Ohio State University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365542600.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Massatti, Richard. "The Spatial Relationships among Neurotoxicant Exposure, Child Admissions, and Mental Health Assessment Scores: How do they Interact in the State of Ohio?" Doctoral dissertation, Ohio State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1365542600

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

osu1365542600
906
© 2013, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License The Spatial Relationships among Neurotoxicant Exposure, Child Admissions, and Mental Health Assessment Scores: How do they Interact in the State of Ohio? by Richard Roland Massatti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by The Ohio State University and OhioLINK.