Projektdetails
Equal-Life: Early environmental quality and life-course mental health effects
Dr. Helene Gudi-Mindermann;
Dr. rer. pol. Dipl.-Ing. Natalie Riedel;
Jana Roczen;
Maddie White;
Description
Health is the result of the interaction of the entirety of physical, chemical, biological and social external environmental influences (exposome), and the individual genome. The aim of the interdisciplinary project Equal-Life is to investigate the importance of the exposome for children’s development and mental health and to develop entry points for interventions that design health-promoting living environments for children. For the first time, data on both environmental and social factors will be integrated and analyzed with a life course perspective with regard to children's health.
The focus of the Department of Social Epidemiology of the Institute of Public Health and Nursing Research (IPP), University of Bremen, within Equal-Life is the development of the concept of the social exposome and its integration into the overall concept of the exposome. Social inequalities in living conditions and health opportunities are central to this work. In addition to this conceptual framework, an equity impact assessment of interventions from different sectors will be developed and implemented against the background of a ‘health equity in all policies’ approach. As the WHO Collaborating Center for Environmental Health Inequalities, the Department of Social Epidemiology has particular expertise in environmental justice research.
Equal-Life is an EU-funded project that brings together researchers from 21 institutions from 11 different European countries. It is one of a total of nine collaborative projects of the European Human Exposome Network, which has the overarching aim of meeting the challenge issued in 2005 by Christopher Paul Wild, the founder of the term exposome: “There is a desperate need to develop methods with the same precision for an individual's environmental exposure [i.e the individual’s exposome] as we have for the individual’s genome.” (Wild, 2005).
Further information
Homepage of the project Equal-Life
Homepage of the European Exposome Network
Project partners:
Avans University of Applied Sciences (Avans), NL; Fundacion Privada Instituto de Salud Global Barcelona (ISGlobal), ES; Gemeente Utrecht (CoU), NL; Goeteborgs Universitet (UGOT), S; Helsingin Yliopisto (UH), FI; ITA-Suomen Yliopisto (UEF), FI; J.Z.U. Institut za Javon Zdravje na Republika Makedonja Skopje (IJZRM), MK; Karolinska Institutet (KI), S; Nacionalni Institut za Javno Zdravje (NIJZ), SI; Quantina Consulting SRL (Quantina), IT; Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen (RWTH), DE; Rijkinstituut voor Voksdezondheid en Milieu (RIVM), NL; Stichting International Network on Children’s Health, Environment and Safety (INCHES), NL; Technische Universität Graz (GUT), AT; Technische Universität Kaiserslautern (TUK), DE; Technische Universiteit Delft (TUD), NL; Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e), NL; Universiteit Gent (UGent), BE; University of Leicester (ULEIC), UK; ZEUS GmbH, Zentrum für Angewandet Psychologie, Umwelt- und Sozialforschung (ZEUS), DE
Publications
Journal Article reviewed
Gudi-Mindermann H, White M, Roczen J, Riedel N, Dreger S, Bolte G. Integrating the social environment with an equity perspective into the exposome paradigm: A new conceptual framework of the Social Exposome. Environ Res. 2023;233:116485. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2023.116485
van Kamp I, Persson Waye K, Kanninen K, Gulliver J, Bozzon A, Psyllidis A, Boshuizen H, Selander J, van den Hazel P, Brambilla M, Foraster M, Julvez J, Klatte M, Jeram S, Lercher P, Botteldooren D, Ristovska G, Kaprio J, Bolte G. Early environmental quality and life-course mental health effects: The Equal-Life project. Environmental Epidemiology 2021. 2021;6(1):S. e183. doi:10.1097/EE9.0000000000000183, 16.12.2021
Working- and Discussionpaper
Jeram S, Frigelj N, Kralj M, Ristovska G, Boljka U, Škafar M, Ahrens J, Bolte G, White M. Implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC in Slovenia seen through an equity lens. 14th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem/2023, Belgrad, Serbien, 18.-22.06.2023: Veröffentlichung zum Konferenzbeitrag, Download (Stand: 03.08.2023)
Presentation / Poster
Bolte G. Social-epidemiological perspectives on environmental health research. International EXPOHEALTH Workshop, Mainz 30.10.2024
Jeram S, Frigelj N, Kralj M, Ristovska G, Boljka U, Škafar M, Ahrens J, Bolte G, White M. Implementation of the Environmental Noise Directive 2002/49/EC in Slovenia seen through an equity lens.14th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 18.-22.06.2023, Belgrade, Serbia. 2023
Kuhlmann J, Benz S, Sandionigi A, Jeram S, Jansen S, van den Hazel P, Weber M, Ristovska G, White M, Schreckenberg D. Stakeholders’ views about the environmental noise impact on children’s and adolescents’ health and cognitive development. 14th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 18.-22.06.2023, Belgrade, Serbia. 2023
Benz S, Kuhlmann J, van den Hazel P, Weber M, Jeram S, Sandionigi A, Jansen S, Ristovska G, White M, Psyllidis A, Teeuwen R, Ahrens J, Schreckenberg D. Stakeholder involvement in research on health impact of environmental exposure. 14th ICBEN Congress on Noise as a Public Health Problem, 18.-22.06.2023, Belgrade, Serbia. 2023
White M, Gudi-Mindermann H, Roczen J, Jeram S, van Kamp I, Bolte G. Equity considerations in interventions within Equal-Life: Development of a logic model framework for assessing the equity impacts of urban interventions. EHEN (European Human Exposome Network) Scientific Meeting, 24.05.2022, Barcelona, Spain. 2022
Ahrens J, White M, Gudi-Mindermann H, Bolte G. Assessment of social inequities in urban planning interventions. Stakeholder Forum, 16.11.2022, Milan, Italy. 2022
Gudi-Mindermann H, Roczen J, White M, Riedel N, Dreger S, Bolte G. Social Exposome in the context of the entire exposome. Consortium Meeting Equal-Life, 03.03.2021, Netherlands. 2021
White M, for the Equal-Life consortium. Early environmental quality and life-course mental health effects. Conference of the European Human Exposome Network, 16.03.2021, Netherlands. 2021
Gudi-Mindermann H, for the Equal-Life project team. Social inequalities in environment and health: How to measure the Social Exposome? European Human Exposome Network Day, 11.06.2021, virtual, Netherlands. 2021
White M, Jansen S. Social inequalities in the Exposome and achieving equity – What are we thinking about in Equal-Life? European Human Exposome Network, Working group Ethical and Legal Issues, 23.09.2021, (virtual), Netherlands. 2021