University Hospital will partake in the largest study of children ever proposed in the United State after being chosen to participate by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
The $2.7 billon study aims at improving the health and well-being of8232; children during their childhood and early adulthood.
Two years ago, U pediatricians and study planners agreed that Utah would be a logical choice because of the large number of children in the state.
“The main reason Utah was chosen is probably because we have a long and very detailed history of doing these types of studies,” Edward B. Clark, director of Primary Children’s Hospital, said.
“We also know that it is easier to track children here. Our population, compared with some other cities, has a more stable growth rate,” Clark said.
The National Children’s Study will follow at least 100,000 children from the womb to age 21 to see how environment and genes influence susceptibility to key diseases. The purpose is to improve prevention of these diseases.
Researchers hope to get an understanding of how genes within a family as well as the environment in which a child grows up affect the illnesses children experience, Clark said.
“While the children’s genetic makeup will be easy to track, the environment factor will be a very difficult thing to get our hands around,” Clark said. “It can come down to the water they drink, the food they eat and the air that they breathe.”
He said that the study also tries to discover the link between other environmental exposures such as secondhand smoke, electric radiation and magnetic radiation.
Starting in 2007, 1,250 children in Salt Lake County will be recruited, with a goal of studying an additional 250 newborns every year.
According to the National Institute of Child Health and Development, as more funding becomes available, the project will expand to 50 more study centers.
Federal funding was secured in 2000, and researchers will begin collecting data in 2007.
“We’ll start putting out results a bit after the kids are born, because we think that it’s important to get the results out there,” said Sarah Chime, deputy director of the National Children’s Study Program Office in a written statement.