FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Gretchen Wright
202/371-1999
November 16, 2004

STATEMENT OF GAIL KINCAIDE, Executive Director, Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses on the Commencement of the Pilot Study Phase of the National Children’s Study

The National Institute of Child Health & Human Development’s National Children’s Study holds great promise for making a critical difference in our ability to prevent a wide variety of serious diseases and conditions and vastly improving the health and health care of our nation. As an organization representing some 22,000 nurses who specialize in women’s and newborn health, the Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN) is particularly pleased that this study will observe children beginning before birth.

AWHONN is dedicated to helping women have the safest and healthiest possible pregnancies in order to ensure the healthiest babies. We know that many factors contribute to the growth and development of an infant. A pregnant women’s health prior to pregnancy, health choices during pregnancy, nutrition, stress and exposure to other physiologic and environmental factors must all be considered in planning a successful pregnancy. That is why AWHONN has worked to establish itself as the standard-bearer for information on and guidelines for prenatal care.

The National Children’s Study will recruit more than 100,000 women from across the United States. AWHONN is prepared to assist in identifying potential participants through the thousands of nurse-midwives and nurse practitioners among our membership.

The National Children’s Study is an enormous and ambitious but absolutely necessary undertaking. There is much we still need to learn about the role the environment plays - beginning even before birth - on infant development and their health through the age of 21. AWHONN and our 22,000 members are extremely excited about this effort and prepared to assist in any way we can.

November 12, 2004

Dr. Duane Alexander, Director
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institutes of Health
Building 31
31 Center Drive MSC 2425
Bethesda, MD 20892-2425

Dear Dr. Alexander:

We, the undersigned organizations, are very pleased that the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is proceeding with plans to launch the National Children’s Study (NCS)--an ambitious long-term study of American children.

As you know, the Children’s Health Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-310) authorized the NICHD to lead a consortium of relevant agencies – including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) -- in undertaking the NCS. The study will follow a diverse cohort of more than 100,000 children from across the United States from before birth until age 21 to examine the effects of physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial environmental influences on health and development.

Environmental influences are powerful determinants of health, especially in our children. Over the past 50 years, the environment in which children live has changed dramatically and there have been sharp increases in reported rates of some childhood diseases and conditions such as asthma and obesity. Yet research into the impact of the environment on children’s health has lagged. We need the NCS, in addition to ongoing governmental children’s health research efforts, to close these gaps in understanding what is or is not of risk or benefit to children in their environments. We need the NCS to create the scientific basis for a blueprint for prevention.

The plan for the study is very ambitious. But this bold reach will be the key to its success. A project of this scope requires the expertise of scientists from multiple disciplines and sectors, as well as a considerable investment over the course of the study. But such investment is far preferable to a limited, narrow short-term study that can examine only one or a few factors at a time. The success of other longitudinal studies of similar scope --from the Framingham Heart Study, launched in 1948, to the Women’s Health Initiative -- show the value of such studies.

Although the study will be costly to implement, we believe that it would have been extremely shortsighted to delay plans for designing and launching this study. The cost of the study is dwarfed by the cost of treating the diseases and conditions it can be expected to address. NICHD estimates that the major chronic diseases the study will address directly cost America $269 billion per year. If the study were to result in only a 1% reduction in those costs, the expense of the entire twenty-plus year study could be recouped in a single year.

Therefore, we applaud NICHD and its Federal partners for moving forward with plans to initiate the National Children’s Study. Their leadership demonstrates commitment to this extremely valuable research and to America’s children.

Sincerely,

Ambulatory Pediatric Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
American Association on Mental Retardation
American Chemistry Council
American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists
American Educational Research Association
American Pediatric Society
American Psychological Association
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
American Society for Pediatric Nephrology
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Medical School Pediatric Chairs
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)
Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
Catholic Health Initiatives
Coalition of Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue
Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN)
Cooley’s Anemia Foundation
COSSA (Consortium of Social Science Associations)
Easter Seals
First Candle/SIDS Alliance
Genetic Alliance
Jeffrey Modell Foundation
Learning Disabilities Association of America
March of Dimes
National Association of Boards, Commissions and Councils of Catholic Education of the
National Catholic Educational Association
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)
National Black Child Development Institute
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
National Center for Learning Disabilities
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition
Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation
Population Association of America
PXE International
Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine
Society for Pediatric Nephrology
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Research in Child Development
Society for the Study of Reproduction
Spina Bifida Association of America
The Arc of the United States
The Catholic Health Association of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops