{
  "abstract": "Young children (birth to age five) are uniquely vulnerable to environmental hazards due to their higher exposure relative to body weight, rapid physiological and neurological development, and strong reliance on caregivers for protection and care. Such risks are often amplified in marginalized communities with socioeconomic disadvantage and limited access to resources. However, widely used indices, such as the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI), the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI), and the Child Opportunity Index (COI), were not specifically developed for young children and may not capture the combined environmental and socioeconomic risks faced by this age group. To address this critical gap, we developed a county-level Early Childhood Environmental Health Vulnerability Index (EC-EHVI) for the contiguous US using multidimensional indicators within an Exposure-Sensitivity-Adaptive Capacity framework and informed by Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model. We identified the underlying drivers and the spatial patterns of the EC-EHVI. Our results showed that the EC-EHVI exhibited the strongest association with county-level mortality among young children and explained a larger proportion of spatial heterogeneity compared with the SVI, CVI, and COI. Elevated vulnerability clustered in the Great Plains and Southeastern US, where over half of high-vulnerability counties were exposure-driven, and 411 high-high hotspots were identified. The EC-EHVI offers a valuable spatial decision-support tool for designing targeted, place-based interventions and advancing environmental health equity for young children.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability College of Atmospheric and Geographic Sciences University of Oklahoma Norman OK USA.",
    "Early Childhood Education Institute University of Oklahoma-Tulsa Tulsa OK USA.",
    "Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Hudson College of Public Health University of Oklahoma Health Campus Oklahoma City OK USA.",
    "Children's Environmental Health Center in U.S. Southern Great Plains Hudson College of Public Health University of Oklahoma Health Campus Oklahoma City OK USA."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Siyu Liu",
      "orcid": "0009-0003-3236-3842"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Anni Yang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Diane Horm",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-1836-5329"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Mingze Zhu",
      "orcid": "0000-0001-7169-4925"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Changjie Cai"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bnz0rhwc8t260.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1029/2026gh001874",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13712450",
  "id": "bnz0rhwc8t260",
  "issns": [
    "2471-1403"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948754",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_label": "CC BY-NC-ND",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Exposure"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Geohealth"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Geospatial Data Applications for Environmental Justice"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Health Impact"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Impacts of Climate Change: Human Health,"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Natural Hazards"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Public Health"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Research Article"
    ],
    [
      "heading",
      "Vulnerability"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "3312|Environmental Justice and Health Disparities"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7223810507",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13712450?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13712450",
  "pmid": "42948754",
  "published": "2026-10-27",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bnz0rhwc8t260.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T00:20:33Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42948754",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42948754"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-31T12:23:00Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13712450",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1029/2026gh001874"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "heading:Public Health",
      "subfield": "epidemiology-public-health"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Developing an Early Childhood Environmental Health Vulnerability Index to Assess Cumulative Health Impacts Across Contiguous US.",
  "title_text": "Developing an Early Childhood Environmental Health Vulnerability Index to Assess Cumulative Health Impacts Across Contiguous US.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-31T12:23:00Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/bnz0rhwc8t260",
  "venue": "GeoHealth",
  "versions": []
}