Urban sound and tranquility in the context of early-life exposome

During early childhood, children develop skills and vulnerabilities that can significantly influence their later life. To emphasize the complementarity of environmental exposures to genetic influences, the term "exposome" was coined. The exposome encompasses all exposures in the broadest sense, including the social environment in which a child develops. Sound and tranquility are integral components of the exposome. Given the complex interplay between these factors and other aspects of the exposome, traditional methods for establishing exposure-effect relationships may be inadequate. Measurable dimensions of the exposome are translated into indicators. Variants of these indicators may exist, for example, in the measurement or calculation of noise and the definition of tranquility. To refine the set of possible indicators, their validity on relevant outcomes should be assessed individually before integrating them into the overall exposome framework. Due to the strong interactions between exposome components, innovative approaches are required. One such approach involves combining data-driven identification of typical living environments through clustering with expert knowledge. This methodology will be illustrated with examples from the Equal Life project.