A Look at the Diverse Communities of the National Children’s Study (April 2008)The National Children’s Study will follow children in 105 Study locations across the country, capturing daily life in farms, desert regions, mountains, inner cities, suburbs, and other kinds of communities. Recruiting a representative sample of children from diverse groups will ensure that Study findings reflect the experiences of many different American families and not just those of one particular race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, or region.
How the National Children’s Study Works: Federal Collaboration (January 2008)The Study presents the lead agency partners—the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences—an opportunity and need for an unprecedented level of planning and interagency collaboration where contributions of all the lead agencies are seen as equally important. The National Children’s Study Develops New Informed Consent Tool (August 2007)To ensure that every participant is as fully informed as possible, and to ensure that potential participants receive consistent information, the Study has developed an innovative informed consent process involving the use of a new video tool featuring questions at the end of each section to assure information is presented clearly and is understood. National Children’s Study: Progress in 2006 and the Promise of 2007 (April 2007)During 2006, Vanguard Center leaders met with local community groups and health care professionals to inform them about the Study, formed Community Advisory Boards composed of representatives from the local community who will provide ongoing guidance on a range of Study-related issues, and conducted needs assessments in their communities. The National Children’s Study Participates in Largest Proposed Study of Childhood Cancer (June 2006)The International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium, an international alliance of organizations conducting child health cohort studies—including the National Children’s Study—may be able to answer questions about rare childhood diseases, particularly about the etiology of childhood leukemia, the most common form of childhood cancer. It will pool information from 11 environmental health studies representing approximately 700,000 children. Looking Back at 2005, Looking Forward to 2006 (January 2006)2005 marked a significant milestone in the life of the Study with the announcement of the seven Vanguard Centers that will launch and carry out the Study across the country. Study planners are developing the Study Protocol, a roadmap to guide researchers’ sampling, recruitment, and data collection activities and pilot studies are field-testing procedures and technologies to be used in the Study.
National Children’s Study Releases Study Plan and Locations (November 2004)The National Children’s Study enters the implementation phase today with the release of a Study Plan, outlining objectives, methodologies, and measures related to the first years of the 21-year Study; the announcement of the locations across the United States where the Study will be conducted; and the posting of requests for proposals for institutions to manage initial Study sites and for a coordinating center. Supporters Build Awareness for the National Children’s Study (September 2004)Since its inception, many organizations have become involved in activities to raise awareness about the need for the National Children’s Study. These groups—from a range of children’s health, environment, national, and community organizations—have worked on their own to gain support and to ensure that the needs of their communities and constituents are represented in the Study. Sampling Strategy Announced (July 2004)The approach to select locations and participants for the National Children’s Study will employ a national probability sample. The sample will be a multistage design with clusters designed to enhance both efficiency and the ability to measure chemical, physical, and social characteristics of communities as well as of Study participants. National Children’s Study Sampling Design Workshop (June 2004)The Sampling Design Workshop was held on March 21–22, 2004 with the goal of furthering the process of identifying a promising and efficient sampling design for the National Children’s Study. To this end, an expert panel of nine distinguished researchers, with disciplines covering a broad range of scientific areas of importance in the Study, was asked to deliberate on issues and trade-offs involved in selecting the sampling design. A Report from the National Children’s Study Ethics Working Group (November 2003)The National Children’s Study Ethics Working Group, which addresses a range of ethical issues related to the design and conduct of the Study, issued a paper examining how pediatric research regulations would be applied to the Study and is developing a statement on the ethical complexity of recruiting and enrolling pregnant adolescents — one population that may participate in the Study. National Children’s Study Timeline: Into the Pilot Phase (August 2003)After more than two years of careful planning and research, the National Children’s Study has entered Phase II, the pilot phase. Before the Study begins enrolling participants in late 2005, it will focus on key projects such as identifying Study sites, developing protocols, and creating a repository for Study samples. National Children’s Study Plenary Session on Study Hypotheses (March 2003)With advice and support from the federally chartered National Children’s Study Advisory Committee and the 20 Working Groups of scientific experts, we produced more than 50 candidate hypotheses, pilot studies, and a corresponding number of proposed measures. From these products, the Interagency Coordinating Committee proposed an initial set of core hypotheses and began framing the core protocol. |