Personalized Mobile Intervention to Reduce Exposure to Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals in Adults of Child-Bearing Age
Condition: Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals; Environmental Exposure; Health Literacy; Bisphenol A; Phthalate Exposure; Survey
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The goal of this intervention study is to determine to what extent the Million Marker (MM)
      program reduces users' endocrine disruption chemical (EDC) exposure levels and changes their
      environmental health awareness and behaviors. The main questions it aims to answer are:

        -  Can the investigators see a reduction in EDC levels in participants' urine samples after
           using the MM Detect and Detox kit?

        -  Can the investigators see a change in participants' environmental health literacy,
           knowledge, and behaviors after using MM's products and services?

        -  How can Million Marker improve their app and platform to improve the user experience?
           Participants will collect their urine pre- and post-intervention, and will take a
           comprehensive exposure survey (via the MM app) before sending back their samples. This
           exposure survey will ask about participant's product use, diet, and lifestyle behaviors.
           Participants will also fill out surveys pre- and post-intervention assessing their
           perception of environmental health, as well as usability of the platform.
    

Detailed description: 
      Exposures to endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs) have been linked to chronic diseases and
      conditions including breast cancer, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and infertility. Timing of
      exposure, especially during pregnancy, may have a lifelong impact on the fetus, including
      neurodevelopmental problems and asthma. However, there have been no tools to allow those in
      the preconception, conception, and pregnancy stages to assess EDC exposures to ensure a
      healthy pregnancy and normal child development. Million Marker (MM) was born to fill this
      need. MM is a precision health company, built by a team of multidisciplinary scientists who
      are trained in environmental epidemiology, toxicology, analytical chemistry, biostatistics,
      data engineering, and business. MM's missions are to crowdsource and scale the biomonitoring
      of environmental chemicals and provide actionable results to consumers in a timely manner in
      order to empower individuals to proactively assess, track, and reduce their harmful
      environmental exposures. Starting with a few biomarkers of common EDCs, MM's ultimate vision
      is to discover all possible ("a million") biomarkers of harmful exposures to inform and
      improve individual health outcomes and advance precision medicine. Less than a year after it
      was founded, Million Marker developed and sold the first product-a mail-in urine test for BPA
      and phthalates-and successfully helped users reduce exposures through personalized
      intervention plans. Customers are able to order a test kit online, receive the test kit via
      mail, take a comprehensive exposure survey (via the Million Marker app), send back samples
      via mail, view personalized reports with tailored product recommendations through a secure
      online portal, make lifestyle changes to reduce exposures, and retest to monitor progress.
      MM's initial target audience are individuals of reproductive age, due to the vulnerability
      pregnancy and preconception to EDC exposures. However, it is unclear to what extent the MM
      platform educates, motivates, and ultimately reduces EDC exposure in individuals in this age
      range. Therefore, the aims of the current proposal are to 1) test and validate a this
      first-of-its-kind mobile EDC reduction program in a prospective longitudinal cohort
      intervention trial; 2) assess changes in participants' environmental health literacy,
      attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors after using MM's products and services; and 3) evaluate
      the MM app and platform usability to improve the user experience. Validating this population
      with MM's program is a step towards these types of future studies. At the conclusion of the
      project, MM will be well-positioned to begin Phase II and will scale the EDCs testing and
      personalized intervention plan to fertility clinics and the general public.
    

Intervention name(s): Mail-in Urine Test for EDCs
Intervention type(s): Diagnostic Test
Intervention description(s): Million Marker provides a mail-in urine test for Bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. Users take a comprehensive exposure survey (via the MM app), send back their samples, view their personalized reports with tailored product recommendations, make changes to reduce their exposures, and retest to monitor their progress. Participants will also fill out surveys to assess changes in their environmental health literacy, readiness to change, and analyses of lifestyle behaviors and product use.
Other intervention name(s): Million Marker Detect and Detox test kit
Intervention model: Single Group Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Prevention
Keywords: parabens; exposure; environment