Environment and Obesity in the National Children's Study Leonardo Trasande,1,2 Chris Cronk,3 Maureen Durkin,4 Marianne Weiss,5 Dale A. Schoeller,6 Elizabeth A. Gall,4 Jeanne B. Hewitt,7 Aaron L. Carrel,8 Philip J. Landrigan,1,2 and Matthew W. Gillman9 1Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, and 2Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA; 3Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Hospital of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; 4Department of Population Health Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; 5College of Nursing, Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; 6Interdepartmental Program in Nutritional Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; 7Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA; 8Department of Pediatrics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA; 9Obesity Prevention Program, Department of Ambulatory Care and Prevention, Harvard Medical School and Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, Boston, Massachusetts, USA Abstract Objective: In this review we describe the approach taken by the National Children's Study (NCS) , a 21-year prospective study of 100,000 American children, to understanding the role of environmental factors in the development of obesity. Data sources and extraction: We review the literature with regard to the two core hypotheses in the NCS that relate to environmental origins of obesity and describe strategies that will be used to test each hypothesis. Data synthesis: Although it is clear that obesity in an individual results from an imbalance between energy intake and expenditure, control of the obesity epidemic will require understanding of factors in the modern built environment and chemical exposures that may have the capacity to disrupt the link between energy intake and expenditure. The NCS is the largest prospective birth cohort study ever undertaken in the United States that is explicitly designed to seek information on the environmental causes of pediatric disease. Conclusions: Through its embrace of the life-course approach to epidemiology, the NCS will be able to study the origins of obesity from preconception through late adolescence, including factors ranging from genetic inheritance to individual behaviors to the social, built, and natural environment and chemical exposures. It will have sufficient statistical power to examine interactions among these multiple influences, including gene–environment and gene–obesity interactions. A major secondary benefit will derive from the banking of specimens for future analysis. Key words: bisphenol A, built environment, endocrine disruptors, diet, National Children's Study, obesity, phthalates, physical activity. Environ Health Perspect 117:159–166 (2009) . doi:10.1289/ehp.11839 available via http://dx.doi.org/ [Online 12 September 2008] Address correspondence to L. Trasande, Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1043, New York, NY 10029 USA. Telephone: (212) 241-8029. Fax: (212) 996-0407. E-mail: leo.trasande@mssm.edu The authors are investigators in the Queens, New York, and Waukesha County, Wisconsin, Vanguard Centers and the Coordinating Center of the National Children's Study. This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, under contracts NICHD HHSN275200503411C/N01-HD-5-3411. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The authors declare they have no competing financial interests. Received 21 June 2008 ; accepted 11 September 2008. The full version of this article is available for free in HTML or PDF formats. |