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When will the Study begin in San Diego County?
How will participants in San Diego be selected?
How can I become a participant in the Study?
I don’t live in any of the Study areas. Is there any other way I can get involved in the Study?
What if I don’t have any children or I’m not planning on getting pregnant or having children?
What about my other children? Can I enroll them in the Study?
Can an adopted child be in the Study?
What kind of a study is the National Children’s Study?
What information can I expect to receive from the Study?
How will the Study collect information from me/my family?
How will my privacy be protected?
What happens if I move out of the Study area?
Why is it important to participate in the National Children’s Study?
How many people will participate in the Study?
How were the Study locations selected?
What do researchers expect to learn from the Study?
When will the Study begin in San Diego County?
We began enrolling families in San Diego County in the winter of 2011.
How will participants in San Diego be selected?
In San Diego County, 14 neighborhoods were randomly selected to participate in the Study. The random selection of these neighborhoods ensures a diversity of participants that will represent our county’s population. Women who live in these neighborhoods will be eligible to enroll in the Study.
How can I become a participant in the Study?
Only women and families who live within the pre-selected Study neighborhoods will be eligible to take part in the Study. If you live in one of our 14 Study neighborhoods, over the next 6-9 months you will receive a knock on your door by one of our household interviewers. This person will be wearing a National Children’s Study shirt and will be carrying a badge that identifies him or her as a Study Household Interviewer. Just open your door and talk with our Interviewer; s/he will explain what it means to join the Study and will then ask you some questions to determine if you are eligible to participate in the Study. Even if you are not planning to become pregnant right now, you may still want to learn about the Study in case your plans change in the future.
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I don’t live in any of the Study areas. Is there any other way I can get involved in the Study?
If we cannot enroll you as a Study participant, there are many others ways to be a part of this exciting Study! For example, we have Neighborhood Advisory Councils for each of our Study areas; if you live in or near one of these areas, please contact Diana Simmes at 858-822-3785 or by e-mail at dsimmes@projects.sdsu.edu or Everardo Aguilar at 858-822-5409 or by e-mail at efaguilar@ucsd.edu for more information.
If you are interested in volunteer opportunities, we’re always looking for helpers! Just let us know your interests and your availability, and we can arrange for you to meet with one of our staff to explore volunteer opportunities.
Finally, the San Diego County Vanguard location is often hiring new staff, so if you are interested in job opportunities, search “National Children’s Study” on each of the following job Web sites for current openings:
What if I don’t have any children or I’m not planning on getting pregnant or having children?
The Study is interested in talking to all women of childbearing age who live in the Study neighborhoods, whether or not they are currently pregnant or planning a pregnancy.
What about my other children? Can I enroll them in the Study?
The Study will only include children (including multiple births) who are born while you are enrolled in the Study. If you have other children at the time you are enrolled in the Study, unfortunately they are not eligible to participate.
Can an adopted child be in the Study?
If a child’s birth mother lives in one of the selected Study neighborhoods during her pregnancy, it may be possible for that child to participate in the Study, even if the child moves out of the Study neighborhood with the adoptive family.
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What kind of a study is the National Children’s Study?
The National Children’s Study is an observational study. This means that you will be asked questions, not asked to change what you normally do. The Study will collect information in several ways. You will be asked to answer questions and to complete forms. If you are eligible to enroll in the Study, trained staff may also do simple physical measurements. like height and weight, and collect biologic samples like blood, urine, and hair. Study staff may also collect environmental samples at your home, such as water and dust. You may also be asked to collect some of your own samples, and to keep track of certain things, like what you eat. Study representatives may also contact you from time to time by phone, mail, or e-mail to ask a few questions.
Visits to women and their children will be spread out over the course of the 21 years of the Study. There may be a few visits while you are pregnant and a visit when you give birth. There may be additional visits after birth and then throughout the years as the child grows.
What information can I expect to receive from the Study?
Study staff will periodically provide all participants with general news and information about the Study through newsletters or through updates on the National Children’s Study Web site, including medical discoveries that have been made and research findings from the local Study teams. We will also give you reports on some of the information we collect from you, like height, weight, and blood pressure. In addition, we will share Study data and information over the next two decades on both an individual and a community level.
How will the Study collect information from me/my family?
The Study will collect information on women before and during pregnancy and on their children from before birth into adulthood. Information will be collected at various points in time until the child turns 21. Some visits may take place in the participant’s home, while others may be in clinical settings, such as a health clinic. By continuing to gather information from children and their families for 21 years, Study researchers will learn about health and development at different ages and stages of growth which will shed light on the factors that influence healthy development as children grow.
How will my privacy be protected?
The National Children’s Study takes its commitment to protect the privacy and confidentiality of its participants very seriously. The National Children’s Study will meet or exceed all laws, regulations, and guidelines related to the strict protection of participant confidentiality and the confidentiality of the information participants share with the Study.
Participants’ personal information will be closely protected by Study staff members who are trained on issues related to privacy and confidentiality. Data collected for the Study will be used only for research purposes. The Study will use unique identification numbers and carefully designed computer-management systems that protect personal identifying information.
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What happens if I move out of the Study area?
If you have already given birth and you are planning to move, please call the San Diego County Vanguard location office at 877-706-2773 to let us know that you would still like to participate in the Study and provide us with your new address and telephone number. If you have not yet given birth when you move, you may or may not be able to join the Study in your new home; give us a call when you know what your new address will be, and we’ll help figure it out.
Why is it important to participate in the National Children’s Study?
Participating in the National Children’s Study is a unique opportunity to be part of a nationwide landmark health effort. It will be one of the most comprehensive research efforts, and the largest and most detailed study in history focused on children’s health and development in the United States.
The National Children’s Study will examine important health issues to establish links between children’s environments and their health. By tracking children’s development from conception through infancy, childhood, and early adulthood, the Study hopes to determine what makes children healthy.
Women and their families can have a major impact on the health of future generations by joining the National Children’s Study, helping their communities and country to gain a better understanding of children’s health and development.
How many people will participate in the Study?
The National Children’s Study is the largest research Study of children’s health and development in the history of the United States. Current plans include enrollment of 100,000 women and their children across the nation. In San Diego, we plan to enroll over 1,000 women and their children.
How were the Study locations selected?
The National Children’s Study will include children and families from different areas of the country, from diverse cultures and backgrounds, and from varied family types and traditions. Currently, prospective participants must reside in a pre-selected Study location to be eligible to participate. In order to ensure diversity of participants, all Study locations across the nation were selected using a scientifically based method to ensure that children and families from diverse ethnic, racial, economic, religious, geographic, and social groups across the nation are included. The Study sample will be a statistically valid population that will permit both generalizations about the nation as a whole and detailed analysis of specific communities and subpopulations.
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What do researchers expect to learn from the Study?
The focus of the Study is to examine the interaction between the environment, genetics, and our health, growth, and development. By taking a long-term view of children from birth to adulthood, the Study hopes to learn how children grow up healthy and how this subsequently leads to healthy adults by determining the root causes of many childhood and adult diseases. The Study will examine how events and exposures early in life can lead to specific outcomes.
Findings from the Study will benefit all Americans by providing researchers, health care providers, and public health officials with information from which to develop prevention strategies, health and safety guidelines, and possibly new treatments and cures for disease. Data from the Study may inform research into many conditions such as, but not limited to, birth defects and pregnancy related problems; injuries; asthma; obesity; diabetes; and behavior, learning, and mental health disorders.