title: Consideration of age-related changes in behavior trends in older adults in assessing risks of environmental exposures.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore age-related behavior differences between older and younger adults, and to review how older adult activity patterns are considered in evaluating the potential risk of exposure to environmental pollutants.
  
  
  METHODS
  Activity pattern data and their use in risk assessments were analyzed using the U.S. EPA Exposure Factors Handbook (EFH), U.S. EPA Consolidated Human Activity Pattern Database (CHAD), and peer-reviewed literature describing human health risk assessments.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The characterization by age of some factors likely to impact older adults' exposures remains limited. We demonstrate that age-related behavior trends vary between younger and older adults, and these differences are rarely explicitly considered in environmental health risk assessment for older adults.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Incorporating older adult exposure factors into risk assessments may be challenging because of data gaps and difficulty in defining and appropriately binning older adults. Additional data related to older adult exposure factors are warranted for evaluating risk among this susceptible population.
authors.affiliation: Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, National Center for Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, US Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, NC, USA.
authors.forename: Lauren
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tuttle
authors.forename: Qingyu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Meng
authors.forename: Jacqueline
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moya
authors.forename: Douglas O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Johns
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000375:Aging / Q000523:psychology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018570:Risk Assessment; D014481:United States; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants