Monday, 8 October 2007
Health Study To Track 100,000 Children To Age 21
Since 2000, Michigan researchers have been planning to conduct the largest children’s health study in history. The initiative, called the National Children’s Study, will monitor 100,000 children in 105 communities nationwide until they reach the age of 21.
Its main goal is to see how environmental and other factors affect children’s health and development, reported the Detroit Free Press. Specific health problems the study will concentrate on include childhood obesity, autism, diabetes, asthma, and learning disorders.
Researchers will also examine the air the children breath, the water they drink, their diets, the amount of dust in their homes, exposure to chemicals, and their mental health.
“We can anticipate beginning to learn important scientific information as early as 2011 and 2012,” said the director of the National Children’s Study, Peter Scheidt.
Researchers in Michigan will focus on Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, because of the county’s high rate of childhood health problems. Recruitment for participants will begin in early 2009.
Michigan State University will lead Michigan's research. They will also work with Wayne State University, the Michigan Department of Community Health, University of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System, and the Children’s Hospital of Michigan.
“This is a very important and landmark study, both nationally and for the state of Michigan,” said Dele Davies, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Human Development at Michigan State University.
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