Services
Services
Welcome to the Diablo Analytical Institute Internet Site!
DAI develops new and utilizes currently available epidemiologic methods and data analysis procedures that advance our understanding of how ambient air pollution and other ecological hazards adversely impact the health of organizations.
A recently published study developed and evaluated a new data analytic method that more accurately identified cases (persons exposed to air pollution) and controls (persons not exposed to air pollution) in an environmental health epidemiologic study that assessed the contribution of aerosol optical depth-PM2.5 to respiratory-cardiovascular emergency department visits and inpatient hospitalizations in the Baltimore study area (Maryland, U.S.A.; Braggio, Hall, Weber, Huff, 2021).
Another recently published epidemiologic research paper demonstrated the utility of a newly developed data analysis method that identified homogeneous spatial areas with similarities between aerosol optical depth-PM2.5 concentrations levels and respiratory-cardiovascular health outcomes (Braggio, Hall, Weber, Huff, 2022). Additional study-specific ecologic analyses identified spatial areas 12 km2 by 12 km2 where persons exposed to elevated ambient concentrations of fine PM could have had concurrent secondary exposures to ecological hazards, for example, zinc from manufacturing sources.
Diablo Analytical Institute's focus and expertise are in using computerized statistical procedures to statistically evaluate categorical and continuous outcome measures. DAI's in-house knowledge includes the use of conditional logistic regression, as well as other discrete and continuous inferential data analysis methods. This type of data analysis expertise allows the study objective to determine the most appropriate statistical procedure that should be used to answer the posed applied research questions.
These are representative examples of different analytical methods that can be used to determine if environmental hazards have adversely impacted specific health outcomes:
Epidemiologic surveillance systems can be developed and implemented to observe trends in selected environmental hazards and health outcomes over time.
Data linkage studies concatenate air pollution sources (and one or more environmental hazards) with health outcomes on the same spatial-temporal attributes (day of exposure and location, for example). The linked environmental hazard exposure-health outcome data file can be analyzed using conditional logistic regression or other more appropriate statistical procedures.
Case-control studies can be designed to confirm the presence of differences in selected health outcome measures between environmental hazard exposed organizational members and/or customers (cases) and other organizational members and/or customers not exposed to environmental hazards (controls).
Once robust epidemiologic evidence shows that organizational members and/or customers have been exposed to environmental hazards, DAI can design and implement an appropriate intervention protocol. Intervention results will be able to confirm both the lowering or removal of ambient air pollution with or in the absence of ecological hazards and the post-intervention reduction or absence of adverse health outcomes.
Written reports can include surveys of environmental hazard sources and their concentration levels in the workplace and their relationship to the current health status of exposed persons.
Regulatory compliance is an important area that impacts organizations. DAI can assist organizations by confirming they have met environmental hazard regulations.
DAI can also develop, implement, and analyze results that will be included in organization proposals that will be submitted to local, state, and federal environmental and health regulatory agencies.
A related DAI epidemiologic service now available can assess the possible presence of lower environmental hazard concentration levels in workspaces and determine if the health of organizational members or their customers has been adversely impacted. This type of evaluation will also include assessment of differences in the reported health of persons with longer versus shorter organizational tenure in different work settings.
Other DAI services include assisting organizations to develop and present environmental hazard and health outcome presentations to different audiences - lay persons and technical experts.