Within a year, researchers from the U will be knocking on doors with a goal of recruiting 2,200 pregnant women for a billion-dollar study.
The National Children’s Study, the largest children’s study to ever take place in the United States, will be launched with the intent of understanding children’s health better and improving children’s health throughout the country.
The study will examine more than 100,000 children from across the nation and study their health from before birth until age 21.
Researchers plan to examine several factors that might influence children’s health, including natural and man-made environmental factors, physical surroundings, cultural and family influences, genetics and geographic locations.
After an initial 2,200 expecting mothers are recruited, researchers will add 250 more each year until the end of the study, said Edward Clark, chair of pediatrics at the U and medical director at Primary Children’s Medical Center, during a lecture Wednesday.
But whether the study will ever be finished depends on how much funding it receives.
Since the Children’s Health Act was passed in 2000, $123.6 million has been allocated for the study through government agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency, the Center for Disease Control and the Department of Health and Human Services.
The study has been “broadly supported in Congress,” Clark said.
Despite the support of congressional members, the Bush administration’s 2007 fiscal year budget proposal eliminated funding for the study. Earlier this week, President Bush vetoed the $606 billion spending bill presented to him by Congress that would have, among other things, provided more funding for the study.
“We’re not too concerned about it just because there is such broad support for this across the country,” said Sean Firth, project director of the study. It is difficult for a congressman or senator not to support the study when it’s affecting their respective states, Firth said.
Clark said the study will pay for itself in the long run. Americans now spend more than $2 trillion annually on health care. By spending $3 billion on this study over 25 years, preventative measures will be developed and the amount spent on health care will decrease by more than the $3 billion needed for the study, Clark said.
“A child who is in grade school today is the first generation in the history of this country at risk of being less healthy than their parents,” Clark said.
Clark began practicing medicine in the 1960s. Since then, the occurrence of asthma in children has increased four-fold, he said. Type II diabetes is also increasing among children, a problem Clark said he has never seen since he began his practice.
Utah is one of seven vanguard locations for the study. Many of the universities involved in the study have financed the research using university funding, Firth said. Adjunct studies will also be conducted in two other areas in Utah.
“This data will allow us to develop preventative strategies. Invest now, save later,” Clark said.