On January 13, 2009, participant recruitment for the National Children’s Study (NCS) began in Duplin County, one of the Study’s first sites. Staff members from Battelle Memorial Institute, which is part of the North Carolina Study Center, began visiting homes in select areas of Duplin County to find eligible women for the Study. The staff member, or interviewer, asks a series of questions to household members to determine if anyone in the home qualifies to participate in the Study. This process is called enumeration. If a woman is identified as eligible, the interviewer asks additional questions and records all the answers on a tablet computer. Earphones are provided to the potential participant for privacy.
In March 2009, the first woman agreed to participate in the Study. The first NCS baby in Duplin County was born in July!