Call for Papers to the Birth Defects Research Journal: Addressing Health Disparities through Environmental Justice, and Community Engagement
Environmental Justice (EJ) and Community Engagement promote solutions to mitigate risks to toxic environmental chemicals and psychosocial stressors during pregnancy and early childhood. Such risks are often due to socioeconomic disadvantages, founded in structural racism, leading to health disparities. Low birthweights, preterm births, developmental delays, and maternal morbidity are among the adverse outcomes from unequal health care. This special issue will focus on the need for research and policy to address environmental justice support and community-based partnerships to mitigate health disparities. Community engagement is a collaborative process that recognizes the expertise and authority of those impacted by adverse environmental exposures. It supports health-protective policy and is responsive to community-defined research priorities to reverse the history of systemic exclusion. Earning the trust of a community through equitable partnership enables environmental justice organizations and researchers to take on robust data collection efforts that respond to immediate needs in support of healthy pregnancies, births, and child development. Topics associated with these issues could include:
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Introduce the concept of health disparities, and environmental justice.
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Introduce the concept of community engagement (e.g., Community Based Participatory Research Model)
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Factors in health disparities modeled through machine learning
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Community identification of adverse environmental exposures/stressors related to maternal/infant mortality, pregnancy risk factors (including nutrition) and mental health
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Health disparities after natural disasters
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Translational research/communicating findings to communities at risk/translation into policies
Deadline for submissions: Nov 30, 2023
Guest Editors:
Dr. Marilyn Silva, University of California, Davis, USA, Email: marilynhelensilva@gmail.com Madeline Vera-Colon, University of California, Irvine, USA, Email: mvera006@ucr.edu
Each manuscript should be written according to the Instructions to Authors (Birth Defects Research (wiley.com)) for the Birth Defects Research Journal (Society for Birth Defects Research and Prevention) and should be submitted electronically via our online submission system (Birth Defects Research (wiley.com)). Please remember to indicate that your manuscript is intended for this special issue (Addressing Health Disparities through Environmental Justice, and Community Engagement) during the submission process. All manuscripts will be peer reviewed according to the policies of the journal.