The National Children’s Study will be the largest long-term study of children’s health and development ever conducted in the United States
What is the National Children’s Study?
The National Children’s Study is a long-term research project that will examine environmental influences on children’s health and
development in order to improve the health and well-being of children.
More than 100,000 children across the United States will participate in the National Children’s Study. Researchers will follow children
from before birth until age 21. Study scientists will examine family genetics, neighborhoods and schools, chemical exposures, food and
water, as well as children’s social and behavioral environments to pinpoint the root causes of many of today’s major childhood diseases and
disorders, and determine not only which aspects of the environment are harmful, but also which are harmless or helpful to children’s health and
development.
How will the Study help us?
When completed, the National Children’s Study will be the richest information resource for questions related to child health ever. It will guide us in preventing childhood asthma, cancers, neurodevelopmental disorders, obesity and type 2 diabetes, and birth defects. It will save the lives and improve the health of millions of American children.
Why focus the Research on Children?
Children are not simply “little adults.” Their immature systems often make them more vulnerable than adults to environmental exposures. Young children interact with the environment differently. They spend more time on the ground, close to dust, soil and other elements of the environment. Scientists understand too little about these factors, and whether they are harmful, harmless, or helpful to children’s health and development. Research findings on the effects of lead on child development, or findings on the impact of maternal alcohol use on the fetus emphasize the need for studies that examine the impact of environmental factors on children’s health.
Who is performing the Study in Salt Lake County?
Salt Lake is one of the first seven sites (Vanguard Centers) selected to pilot the NCS. The Salt Lake Vanguard Center is led by the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah.
Who is leading the Study nationally?
The Study is led by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services—through the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention – and by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Over the next two decades, more than 40 federal agencies and departments will work with child and environmental advocacy and support groups, private industries and foundations, community leaders, university-based scientists, and local medical sites across the country to sustain the Study and ensure it remains focused on common goals.
When will the Study start? What will be involved?
Researchers will begin recruiting women in the fall of 2008 in 15 selected neighborhoods within Salt Lake County. Researchers will go door-to-door and recruit women into the Study who represent a cross-section of ethnic, geographic, and socioeconomic groups. Eventually researchers will follow 1,250 live births into this landmark study on childhood health, growth and development.
What will we get from the Study – And When?
Researchers will not need to wait for the completion of the Study to analyze the results. Beginning with birth outcomes, findings will
be available within two to three years after the Study is launched, and additional results will be released regularly throughout the
duration of the Study.
The National Children’s Study will identify early-life exposures that affect individuals during childhood and throughout the rest of their
lives. It will provide researchers, health care providers, educators, and others who work with children with a vast resource of data from
which to develop prevention strategies, health and safety guidelines, educational approaches, and possibly new treatments and cures for
health conditions. In addition, the Study will prove or disprove many theories of child health and development that are speculative today.
For the first time, the Study will allow researchers to apply knowledge of the human genome on a large scale and to understand conditions
that arise from gene/environment interactions.
Who can I contact for more information about the Study?
Sean Firth, PhD, MPH, Project Director, (801) 587-7462 • sean.firth@hsc.utah.edu
Jan Johnson, Administrative Director, (801) 587-7407 • jan.johnson@hsc.utah.edu
Pamela Silberman, MA, Community Relations Director, (801) 213-3295 • pamela.silberman@hsc.utah.edu
Who can I contact about job opportunities?
Amber Nielsen, Human Resource, Human Resource Rep amber.nielsen@hsc.utah.edu
Available job opportunities: http://www.ped.med.utah.edu/ncs/ncsrecruit.htm