• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Largest Children’s Health Study Now Underway

Posted on: Tuesday, 13 January 2009, 15:10 CST

After planning for nearly a decade, researchers will begin work this week on what is set to become the largest study to date on the health of U.S. children. 

The scientists will begin recruiting expectant mothers in New York and North Carolina, seeking to eventually track 100,000 children from throughout the country from conception to the age of 21.

"We are embarking on the road to discovering the preventable causes of the major chronic diseases that plague American children today," Dr. Philip Landrigan of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine told the Associated Press on Tuesday.

Dr. Landrigan is one of the study’s lead researchers.

The large-scale National Children's Study aims to examine how the environment, which includes everything from the diet of pregnant mothers to a child’s exposure to chemicals, interacts with genetics to impact the health of children.

Indeed, conditions such as asthma, autism, certain birth defects and other disorders are on the rise, and there is increasing concern about what role the environment might play.  Additionally, many adult diseases take root during childhood.

However, while technology now allows scientists to separate multichemical and gene-environment interactions, previous studies have not included a large enough number of children to conclusively determine why some are more at risk than others. The new study aims to determine precisely which chemicals are harmful, and which are not.

Among the more significant issues are whether genetic vulnerability to certain diseases, such as diabetes, are more likely to be developed after early exposure to certain chemicals. Scientists will also look at whether simple exposure to some common chemical compounds, such as pesticides or plastics found in urine samples, mean the children were harmed from the exposure.  And if so, whether there are certain times when such exposure is the most dangerous.

Congress ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish the study in 2000.  After years of planning and some delays brought about by tight budgets, researchers will finally begin work this week to find initial recruits in New York City's dense and ethnically diverse Queens and the smaller, agricultural area of Duplin County, N.C.

The scientists will be seeking women in early pregnancy or who are trying to conceive. Those who participate will be asked to provide samples of their blood, hair and urine, and to allow researchers test the water and dust in their homes, and undergo health interviews throughout their pregnancy. Their babies' health will be monitored with periodic exams and checks of their homes during the first year of life and every three years thereafter.

Researchers expect the study's first birth to occur in July, but they won't have to wait for the children to become adults before they begin getting some answers.  For instance, data on what influences issues such as birth defects and premature birth will likely come as early as 2012, with additional details on early childhood diseases within the following five years.

In April, scientists will begin recruiting participants in five more locations in California, Utah, Pennsylvania, South Dakota and Minnesota. The initial locations are pilot-testing the study's first phase, with nationwide enrollment being planned for summer 2010. However, the NIH said Tuesday that volunteers should not call the agency to enlist, as they must be from tightly defined geographic locations to avoid slanting the study’s results.  Scientists will call certain homes or prenatal providers to recruit in only those areas.
 
---

On the Net:

• Mount Sinai School of Medicine
• National Children's Study
• National Institutes of Health

Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports

More News in this Category