The National Children’s Study will be the largest long-term study of children’s health and development ever to be conducted in the United States. By tracking the health and development of 100,000 children from before birth to the age of 21, the Study will provide researchers, public health officials, health care providers, educators, and others who work with children with a resource of data from which to develop prevention strategies, health and safety guidelines, educational approaches, and possibly new treatments and cures for health conditions.

The Study has designated 105 locations across the United States where it will seek to recruit and enroll eligible families for participation. Together the children from these 105 locations will represent the face of all of America’s children. What is learned from their health and environments will impact the well being of children for years to come.

These locations roughly correspond to U.S. counties or groups of adjoining counties. They were selected using a probability-based method that helps to ensure that children across the nation are fairly represented in the Study.

By design, the selected locations are geographically distributed and demographically varied. By including families from varied backgrounds and family structures, the Study can better investigate issues of vital interest to many communities. Variables for location selection included the number of births in the county, demographics, and number of babies born at a low birth weight.

Study Locations

• Of the 105 sites selected, 79 are metropolitan counties and 26 are in rural, non-metropolitan areas as designated by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 79 metropolitan sites include some of the most populous counties in the United States, as well as smaller urban and suburban areas.
  
  
• While women will be the initial participants in the Study, 100,000 newborn children across the country will be enrolled in the Study. Each site will have a goal of enrolling at least 250 newborns each year for five years. For some sites, this number of newborns will represent a greater percentage of the total births in the community and will therefore involve a larger number of area communities than in others. For this reason, some counties have been clustered to represent one Study site.

Vanguard Centers and Study Centers

• Seven locations were selected as Vanguard locations and are managed by Vanguard Centers, which were awarded in September 2005. This group includes rural, suburban, and urban environments.
  
  
• All of the centers established after the Vanguard Centers are referred to as Study Centers.
  
  
• The NICHD awarded 22 new Study Centers in September 2007. These centers manage Study operations in 26 of the 105 previously designated Study locations. This group includes centers in 20 states. The Study Centers are in both urban and rural areas. Fifteen locations are in the Eastern part of the country, and 11 are in the West.
  
  
• Study planners will work to develop a focused plan for recruitment with the research institutions selected. The majority of participants will join through door-to-door, Census-type screening. Others will join through physicians’ offices, health clinics, and hospitals.
  
  
• The success of the Study in each location will require the collaboration of researchers with governmental officials, healthcare workers, social service agencies, and community groups such as leaders of schools and churches, retailers, and others. For instance, the research institution conducting the Study in a particular location may establish an advisory board or other means of interacting with community representatives to consider ways to ensure a successful effort tailored to local interests.

Methodology

The sampling strategy was selected based on the input from a national panel of experts in sampling, study design, and epidemiology, and reviewed by working groups and the National Children’s Study Advisory Committee. A national probability method was chosen to select the locations to help ensure representation of the entire nation while preserving the local community dimensions of health and the environment.

More Information

A map displaying the Study locations and a list of locations is available at
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/about/locations/.

More information about the Study locations is available in the full Research Plan at
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/research/research_plan/.