The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has been selected to
expand its role as a
study center in the National Children's Study. At a
briefing held Oct. 8, officials from the National
Institutes of Health announced that the Bloomberg School
would oversee recruitment of study
volunteers from Montgomery County, Md., in collaboration
with colleagues from the Johns Hopkins
Montgomery County campus and from local health agencies. In
addition, the Johns Hopkins-based
research team will continue to recruit study participants
from neighborhoods in Baltimore County.
The National Children's Study will eventually follow a
representative national sample of 100,000
children from before birth to age 21. Study volunteers will
be recruited throughout the United
States, from rural, urban and suburban areas, from all
income and educational levels and from all racial
groups. The study aims to investigate factors influencing
the development of such conditions as
autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, birth
defects, diabetes, asthma and obesity.
"What we learn will help promote the well-being of
children and families in Baltimore and
Montgomery counties and across the United States as well as
shape child health guidance,
interventions and policy for generations to come," said
Lynn Goldman, principal investigator and a
professor in the Bloomberg School's Department
of Environmental Health Sciences. "Only a study of
the magnitude of the National Children's Study can provide
answers to some of the most important
questions about how we help children meet their full
potential for health and development.
The Bloomberg School of Public Health is one of 36
study centers of the National Children's
Study, which is a collaborative effort between the U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Johns Hopkins-based center will work with local
health departments, neighborhood and
community organizations, hospitals and parents groups to
recruit and enroll women from
neighborhoods in Baltimore and Montgomery counties to
participate in the long-term study, which will
examine a host of health outcomes, including pregnancy,
neurodevelopment and behavior, child health
and development, asthma and growth, injury and reproductive
development. The study will also look at
childhood chronic conditions as they are influenced by
environmental factors such as chemical
exposures, the physical environment and the psychosocial
environment, as well as by biological and
genetic factors.
In total, the study will be conducted in 105
previously designated study locations across the
United States that together are representative of the
entire U.S. population. A national probability
sample was used to select the counties in the study, taking
into account factors including race and
ethnicity, income, education level, number of births and
number of babies born with low birth weights.
Authorized by Congress in the Children's Health Act of
2000, the National Children's Study is
being conducted by a consortium of federal agencies. This
includes two NIH institutes, the Eunice
Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development and the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences; the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention; and the
Environmental Protection Agency.
More than 500,000 premature infants are born each year
in the United States. Infants born
prematurely are at risk for early death and a variety of
health problems, such as cerebral palsy,
mental retardation and learning disabilities. Health care
costs for preterm infants total $26 billion
per year, according to U.S. government statistics.
"Healthy children can become healthy adults," said
Michael J. Klag, dean of the Bloomberg
School. "The National Children's Study is the first step
toward understanding risk factors for
diseases affecting children and for preventing those
diseases later in life."