The Johns Hopkins
Bloomberg School of Public Health has been selected as
a study center in
the National Children's Study to assess the effects of
environmental and genetic factors on child and
human health in the United States. The study center will
manage local participant recruitment and
data collection in the largest study of child and human
health ever conducted in the United States.
The Bloomberg School is one of 22 new study centers of
the National Children's Study, a
collaborative effort between the U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services and the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency. HHS participants include
the National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development and the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, both members of
the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Baltimore County is the designated local study
area.
"What we learn will help promote the well-being of
children and families in Baltimore County,
Maryland, and across the United States and [will] shape
child health guidance, interventions and policy
for generations to come," said Lynn Goldman, principal
investigator of the new center 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 National Children's Study eventually will follow a
representative sample of 100,000 children
from before birth to age 21, seeking information to prevent
and treat some of the nation's most
pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects,
diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Working with the local health department, neighborhood
and community organizations, hospitals
and parents groups, the center at Johns Hopkins will
recruit and enroll 1,000 women from
neighborhoods in Baltimore County to participate in this
long-term effort to examine a host of health
outcomes, including pregnancy, neurodevelopment and
behavior, child health and development, asthma
and growth, injury, and reproductive development. The study
also will look at childhood chronic
conditions as they are influenced by environmental factors,
such as chemical exposures and physical
and psychosocial environments as well as by biological and
genetic factors.
In total, the study will be conducted in 105 locations
across the country, all previously
designated, that together are representative of the entire
U.S. population. A national probability
sample was used to select the counties, taking into account
factors, such as race and ethnicity,
income, education level, number of births and number of
babies born with low birth weights.
The National Children's Study began in response to the
Children's Health Act of 2000, in which
Congress directed the NICHD and other federal agencies to
undertake a national long-term study of
children's health and development in relation to
environmental exposures. Last week's announcement of
new study centers follows earlier study milestones,
including the 2004 announcement of the 105
locations and the establishment in 2005 of the first seven
centers.