The National Children's Study is the largest long-term study of children’s health and development ever conducted in the United States. By following the development of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, Study researchers hope to better understand how children’s genes and environments interact to affect their health. Study findings may shed light on the root causes of many childhood and adult diseases and possibly provide new preventions, cures, and treatments that could benefit all Americans.

Vanguard Centers and Coordinating Center

• The National Children's Study Program Office awarded contracts in 2005 to seven Vanguard Centers to begin implementing the Study in select communities across the country. Teams from the Vanguard Centers will be the first to work within their communities to recruit participants, collect and process data, and pilot new research methods for incorporation into the full Study.
  
  
• The National Children’s Study Program Office awarded one Coordinating Center—Westat (with University of Pennsylvania, Harvard Medical School (Harvard Pilgrim Health Care), Daston Communications, Inc., The Helix Group, The Media Network, Syntaxis, Southwest Research Institute, Claritas, Inc., and Peters Consulting, Inc). The Coordinating Center is responsible for information management, statistical sampling, data collection and analysis, and quality control.

Study Centers

• The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) awarded 22 new Study Centers in September 2007. These centers will manage Study operations in 26 of the 105 previously designated Study locations.
  
  
• Study Centers were selected from a pool of applicants assessed through a competitive process. They successfully demonstrated the ability to collect and manage biologic and environmental specimens; identify community networks for recruiting and retaining eligible mothers and infants; and protect the privacy of participant data.
  
  
• The Study Centers, including the Vanguard Centers, will work within their communities to recruit participants and collect data. Study Centers are responsible for reporting to the Study’s Program Office and some will manage operations in more than one Study location. The newly-awarded Study Centers will begin activities in 26 locations this year, including preparing for recruitment, hiring and training staff, determining community needs, and setting up community advisory boards.

Participants

• Families who participate in the National Children's Study will come from 105 previously-designated Study locations (counties or groups of counties) across the United States. All locations were selected using a probability-based method to ensure that children and families across the nation—from diverse ethnic, racial, economic, religious, geographic, and social groups—are fairly represented in the Study. Criteria for location selection included demographics, number of births, and number of babies born with low birth weights.
  
  
• In these locations, Study teams will work with health care professionals and community leaders to recruit women who are pregnant or are likely to have a child in the near future for participation in the Study. Most families will be recruited door-to-door. Others will join through their local physicians’ offices, health clinics, and hospitals.
  
  
• The sampling strategy was selected based on the input from a national panel of experts in sampling, study design, and epidemiology, and was reviewed by working groups and the National Children's Study Federal Advisory Committee.

Study Sites

• 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.
  
  
• All Study Centers will enroll women who are either pregnant or likely to have a child during recruitment. The goal will be to attain 250 live births per year in each Study location during the four year enrollment period. 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.

More Information

Map of Study Sites
Research Plan