Retrospective temporal and spatial mobility of adult Iowa women

Human exposure assessments require a linkage between toxicant concentration s in occupied spaces and the receptor's mobility pattern. Databases reporti ng distinct populations' mobility in various parts of the home, time outsid e the home, and time in another building are scarce. Temporal longitudinal trends in these mobility patterns for specific age and gender groups are no nexistent. This paper describes subgroup trends in the spatial and temporal mobility patterns within the home, outside the home, and in another buildi ng for 619 Iowa females that occupied the same home for at least 20 years. The study found that the mean time spent at home for the participants range d from a low of 69.4% for the 50-59 year age group to a high of 81.6% far t he over 80-year-old age group. Participants who lived in either one- or two - story homes with basements spent the majority of their residential occupa ncy on the first story. Trends across age varied for other subgroups by num ber of children, education, and urban/rural status. Since all of these tren ds were nonlinear, they indicate that error exists when assuming a constant , such as a 75% home occupancy factor, which has been advocated by some res earchers and agencies. In addition, while aggregate data, such as presented in this report, are more helpful in deriving risk estimates for population subgroups, they cannot supplant good individual-level data for determining risks.