What is the National Children's Study?
Who are the National Children's Study partners?
What will we learn from the Study?
How will the Study be conducted?
What is the Study timeline?
What is the difference between a Study Center and a Study location?
Who can participate in the Study?
How can I get involved in the Study?
What is the National Children's Study?
The National Children's Study is the largest long-term study ever conducted in the United States on how the environment and genes affect children’s health. It will follow 100,000 children from before they are born until they turn 21. Study researchers hope to better understand how children's genes and their environments work together to affect their health and development. In the Study, "environment" means things such as: air, water, and house dust; what children eat; how they are cared for; the safety of their neighborhoods; and how often they see a doctor.
Who are the National Children's Study partners?
The Children's Health Act of 2000 authorized the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and a group of federal agencies to conduct the National Children's Study.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) join NICHD in planning and conducting this Study. NICHD and NIEHS are both part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the biomedical research arm of the federal government. Both CDC and NIH fall under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the main federal agency for protecting the health of all Americans and providing essential human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. EPA is the arm of the federal government that protects human health and the environment.
These departments and agencies are dedicated to working together to improve the health of our nation's children through the successful completion of the National Children's Study.
What will we learn from the Study?
The Study will look at important health issues like birth defects and pregnancy-related problems; injuries; asthma; obesity; diabetes; and behavior, learning, and mental health disorders to find links between children's environments and their health. By studying children over different parts of their lives, the Study hopes to find the causes of many childhood and adult diseases. Findings from the Study will help all Americans by giving researchers, health care providers, and public health officials information to develop prevention strategies, health and safety guidelines, and possibly new treatments and cures for disease.
How will the Study be conducted?
The Study will be conducted in 105 locations (counties or groups of counties) across the United States. All locations were scientifically selected to make sure that all kinds of children and families from across the nation are fairly represented in the Study. This includes people from different ethnic, racial, economic, religious, geographic, and social groups. In these locations, Study teams will work with health care professionals and community leaders to recruit women who are pregnant or are likely to become pregnant in the near future for participation in the Study. Most families will be recruited through contact at their home. Others will join through their local physicians' offices, health clinics, and hospitals.
In the beginning, researchers will collect information on women's pregnancies, including their diets, environments, chemical exposures, and emotional stress. When their children are born, and at different times during their lives, researchers will collect biologic samples and environmental samples like air, water, and dust from their environments. Researchers will meet with families in both their homes and in clinical settings, and data also will be collected over the telephone or by the computer or mail-in questionnaires.
What is the Study timeline?
Families will join the Study (or enroll) beginning in some communities in the winter of 2009. Other communities will begin enrolling families over the next couple of years. Each child will be followed from birth to age 21.
The University of Utah will begin recruitment in our Salt Lake County location for the Study in the spring of 2009. Our Cache County location in northern Utah will begin recruitment in 2011. The Wyoming-Idaho location is also beginning recruitment in 2011. Please check our Web site for updated information about recruitment at your location.
What is the difference between a Study Center and a Study location?
Families who participate in the National Children's Study will come from 105 Study locations (counties or groups of counties) across the United States. The Study locations include 79 cities and surrounding areas of different sizes, as well as 26 rural communities. All Study locations will enroll women who are either pregnant or likely to have a child during the recruitment period.
Study Centers (PDF 100 kb) are research teams from nearby universities, hospitals, or other organizations that carry out the research at Study locations. Most Centers will manage operations at more than one Study location. They will work within their designated Study location(s) to sign up participants and collect data. There will eventually be 30-50 Study Centers in all.
A map and list of all Study locations can be found on our national site at http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/studylocations/.
Who can participate in the Study?
Women of childbearing of age who live in one of the 105 national Study locations and become pregnant during the enrollment period may be eligible to be part of the Study.
These locations include U.S. counties or groups of counties from across the country, and participants will be from many different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. The recruitment area may include whole counties, or be as small as specific neighborhoods. For more details on how these locations were selected, see Community Involvement.
To find out more information about participating in the Study, see our Participants information or contact your local Study location.
How can I get involved in the Study?
There are many ways you can get involved in the Study.
- Participants: Women of childbearing age who live in one of the 105 Study locations and become pregnant during enrollment period may be eligible to participate in the Study. Contact the Study Center at the University of Utah for more information and to find out if you are eligible.
- Volunteers: There are many volunteer opportunities available with the Study. See our Volunteer Opportunities for more details.
- Job Opportunities: There are often jobs available at the National Children's Study. For more details, see the National or local Job Opportunities pages.