Dr. Yeon Jin Choi UK Cares Career Development Award

This study will analyze presidentially declared disasters across the United States, allowing for the identi?cation of broad patterns in the relationship between natural disasters and health outcomes. Furthermore, it will explore differences by disaster type and severity, providing deeper insights into their health impacts. Lastly, this project will assess the health effects of natural disaster exposure using biomarkers and DNA methylation (DNAm) epigenetic age measures, which are sensitive to current health status and can detect early biological changes that may precede the onset of clinical diseases, disabilities, and other health problems.