Ultrafine Particle Mobile Monitoring Study Designs for Epidemiology: Cost and Performance Comparisons.

backgroundGiven the difficulty of collecting air pollution measurements for individuals, researchers use mobile monitoring to develop accurate models that predict long-term average exposure to air pollution, allowing the investigation of its association with human health. Although recent mobile monitoring studies focused on predictive models' abilities to select optimal designs, cost is also an important feature.

objectivesThis study aimed to compare costs to predictive model performance for different mobile monitoring designs.

methodsWe used data on ultrafine particle stationary roadside mobile monitoring and associated costs collected by the Adult Changes in Thought Air Pollution (ACT-AP) study. By assuming a single-instrument, local monitoring, and constant costs of equipment and investigator oversight, we focused on the incremental cost of staff work days composed mostly of sampling drives and quality control procedures. The ACT-AP complete design included data collection from 309 sites,

resultsFor designs with fewer visits per site, the costs for number of work days were lower and model performance (CV DISCUSSION: Our study provides practical guidance to future mobile monitoring campaigns that have the ultimate goal of assessing the health effect of long-term air pollution. Temporally balanced designs with 12 visits per site are a cost-effective option that provide relatively good prediction accuracy with reduced costs. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP15100.