Introduction

Researchers interested in studying the health impacts of climate change and climate related disasters need access to relevant, timely, and harmonized data on environmental exposures, social determinants of health variables, and health outcomes. However, such data sets are often developed for different purposes, reside in multiple locations, and require linkage. The Climate and Health Outcomes Research Data Systems (CHORDS) Project seeks to connect researchers to environmental and health data sets with a toolkit that provides guides, tutorials, and example code to improve integration of geospatial data-based exposures and health data and records into their research.

About CHORDS

The Climate and Health Outcomes Research Data Systems (CHORDS) program provides resources aimed at making it easier for researchers to study the effects of place-based environmental exposures on health outcomes. The CHORDS resources include a web-based data catalog, standardized data sets, and this toolkit.

About This Toolkit

The CHORDS Training and Use Cases Toolkit (CHORDS Toolkit) provides guides, tutorials, and example code in R. The CHORDS Toolkit GitHub repository provides the underlying code and data for this toolkit.

The CHORDS Toolkit has been developed to support different types of users, such as students, clinicians, and data managers. Please see the User Profile Appendix for descriptions and suggested relevant toolkit chapters for each user profile.

This toolkit requires familiarity with the R programming language and the use of R for working with, visualizing, and analyzing scientific data. Please see the Getting Started chapter for a list of resources for getting started with R for geospatial data analysis in environmental health research.

The toolkit consists of a series of chapters organized into the following units:

  • Geospatial Data Foundations: This unit provides background, guidance and example code for working with different types of geospatial data common in environmental health research. This unit is intended as a starting point for users with less familiarity with geospatial data and geospatial analysis methods in environmental health using R.

  • Wildfire Data: This unit provides guidance for working with different types of wildfire-related data in climate change and health research.

  • Other Environmental Data: This unit provides guidance and code for working with specific sources of environmental data common in environmental health research for characterizing environmental exposures as well as social determinants of health.

  • Health Data Integration: This unit provides guidance and code for integrating environmental and health data in climate change and health research, both at the individual level and at the population level.

  • Use Cases: This unit provides example use cases that analyze integrated wildfire-related data and other environmental exposures data with health outcomes data.

The CHORDS Toolkit is a work in progress. Please see the CHORDS Toolkit GitHub repository for a list of chapters currently in development.

This is a BETA Release. Please let us know of any improvements we can make.

Funding

This resource was supported by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) Office of the Secretary’s Patient Centered Outcomes Research Trust Fund (OS-PCORTF) and by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the NIH Office of Data Science Strategy (ODSS).