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HEIndividual fellowship2023–2026

URBANE · Early-life URBAN environmental exposures and childhood multimorbidity: An Exposome-wide approach

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2023-09-01 → 2026-01-31
EU contribution
€182,245
Participants
2
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

Early-life URBAN environmental exposures and childhood multimorbidity: An Exposome-wide approach

More than half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this proportion is expected to increase to nearly 70% by 2050. While urban living offers many benefits, it also exposes people to environmental factors such as air pollution, noise, heat, traffic and limited green spaces. These exposures are known to affect health, but their impact on children—especially during the earliest stages of life—is still not well understood. Pregnancy and early childhood are particularly sensitive periods when environmental exposures can influence health throughout life. At the same time, many children experience more than one health condition simultaneously, a situation known as multimorbidity. Common childhood conditions such as asthma, obesity and neurodevelopmental disorders often occur together, yet the environmental factors contributing to this pattern remain largely unexplored. The URBANE project will investigate how multiple aspects of the urban environment during pregnancy and childhood influence the risk of multimorbidity in children. The project will use an exposome approach, which considers the combined effects of many environmental exposures across the life course, providing a more comprehensive understanding of environmental impacts on health. By identifying harmful urban environmental factors and the most sensitive periods of exposure, URBANE will help inform prevention strategies and support healthier urban planning and policies to improve children’s health.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

URBANE addresses an important and timely question: how does the urban environment impact the developmental origins of multimorbidity? Neurodevelopmental, cardiometabolic and respiratory adverse health outcomes are increasingly prevalent at young ages, with diseases such as obesity and asthma affecting up to four out of ten children in Europe. Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more health conditions, in childhood is thus becoming a major public health problem with short- and long-term consequences. Although it is well known that environmental hazards play a role in the development of diseases, the contribution of the complex environment in which we grow up and live on the development of multimorbidity remains unclear. URBANE addresses this knowledge gap. The project will leverage the resources of the Portuguese population-based birth cohort Generation XXI and follow an exposome-wide approach to the study of urban environmental impact on childhood multimorbidity. For that, the project will use a wide range of geospatial urban exposure data (e.g., air pollution, and characteristics of the urban natural and built environment) and multiple adverse health outcomes (e.g., high blood pressure, obesity, asthma, behavioral problems) collected at the vulnerable early stages of the lifecourse (pregnancy and childhood). The project will explore socioeconomic status and gender differences and also assess whether DNA methylation changes and dysregulation of hormone leptin explain the urban environmental impact on multimorbidity. URBANE will contribute to the discovery of urban environmental priorities, vulnerable subpopulations and aid in the identification of underlying mechanisms. URBANE is highly interdisciplinary, and fosters knowledge exchange. The project aligns with major EU strategies related to the urban environment and non-communicable diseases prevention, and thus its results are expected to be of high relevance for researchers, policy makers, and society.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • INSTITUTO DE SAUDE PUBLICA DA UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO · PORTOCoordinatorPortugal
  • UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL · BRISTOLUnited Kingdom

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union