Statement of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
on The National Children’s Study
Washington, DC -- The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, representing over 47,000 members who provide health care for women, is very pleased to offer its formal endorsement of The National Children’s Study, which will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of more than 100,000 children across the United States, following them from before birth until age 21. The study plan and locations were released today by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), marking the beginning of the study’s implementation phase.
"This study is an enormous scientific undertaking," noted ACOG Immediate Past President John M. Gibbons, Jr, MD, who represents ACOG on the NICHD Advisory Council that oversees the Children’s Study. "On behalf of our specialty, we applaud the leadership and collaborative efforts of the NICHD and the other federal agencies, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Environmental Protection Agency, in overseeing this unique, landmark study."
Within the first several years, the Children’s Study is designed to pinpoint factors in the causes of a number of targeted high priority health conditions, such as low birth weight and prematurity, still-birth, cerebral palsy, birth defects, SIDS, and mental retardation. Later in childhood, data from the study will help identify causes of diabetes, asthma, ability to learn, obesity, abnormal pubertal development, and many other conditions. During the course of the study, researchers will release scientific findings as the children reach certain developmental milestones.
"This study holds great promise, and its outcomes will greatly benefit the ob-gyn specialty," Dr. Gibbons said. "This study is unlike other health studies. The size, scope, and design of the Children’s Study is exciting, and what’s also fascinating is that we will not have to wait 20 years for the results. It will serve all of medicine well, from beginning to end," he added.
# # #
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists is the national medical organization representing over 47,000 members who provide health care for women.
November 12, 2004
Dr. Duane Alexander, Director
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institutes of Health
Building 31
31 Center Drive MSC 2425
Bethesda, MD 20892-2425
Dear Dr. Alexander:
We, the undersigned organizations, are very pleased that the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) is proceeding with plans to launch the National Children’s Study (NCS)--an ambitious long-term study of American children.
As you know, the Children’s Health Act of 2000 (P.L. 106-310) authorized the NICHD to lead a consortium of relevant agencies – including the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) -- in undertaking the NCS. The study will follow a diverse cohort of more than 100,000 children from across the United States from before birth until age 21 to examine the effects of physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial environmental influences on health and development.
Environmental influences are powerful determinants of health, especially in our children. Over the past 50 years, the environment in which children live has changed dramatically and there have been sharp increases in reported rates of some childhood diseases and conditions such as asthma and obesity. Yet research into the impact of the environment on children’s health has lagged. We need the NCS, in addition to ongoing governmental children’s health research efforts, to close these gaps in understanding what is or is not of risk or benefit to children in their environments. We need the NCS to create the scientific basis for a blueprint for prevention.
The plan for the study is very ambitious. But this bold reach will be the key to its success. A project of this scope requires the expertise of scientists from multiple disciplines and sectors, as well as a considerable investment over the course of the study. But such investment is far preferable to a limited, narrow short-term study that can examine only one or a few factors at a time. The success of other longitudinal studies of similar scope --from the Framingham Heart Study, launched in 1948, to the Women’s Health Initiative -- show the value of such studies.
Although the study will be costly to implement, we believe that it would have been extremely shortsighted to delay plans for designing and launching this study. The cost of the study is dwarfed by the cost of treating the diseases and conditions it can be expected to address. NICHD estimates that the major chronic diseases the study will address directly cost America $269 billion per year. If the study were to result in only a 1% reduction in those costs, the expense of the entire twenty-plus year study could be recouped in a single year.
Therefore, we applaud NICHD and its Federal partners for moving forward with plans to initiate the National Children’s Study. Their leadership demonstrates commitment to this extremely valuable research and to America’s children.
Sincerely,
Ambulatory Pediatric Association
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Academy of Sleep Medicine
American Association on Mental Retardation
American Chemistry Council
American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists
American Educational Research Association
American Pediatric Society
American Psychological Association
American Society for Bone and Mineral Research
American Society for Pediatric Nephrology
Association of American Medical Colleges
Association of Medical School Pediatric Chairs
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD)
Association of Women’s Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses (AWHONN)
Catholic Health Initiatives
Coalition of Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue
Center for Children’s Health and the Environment, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
Children’s Environmental Health Network (CEHN)
Cooley’s Anemia Foundation
COSSA (Consortium of Social Science Associations)
Easter Seals
First Candle/SIDS Alliance
Genetic Alliance
Jeffrey Modell Foundation
Learning Disabilities Association of America
March of Dimes
National Association of Boards, Commissions and Councils of Catholic Education of the
National Catholic Educational Association
National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners (NAPNAP)
National Black Child Development Institute
National Catholic Rural Life Conference
National Center for Learning Disabilities
National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association
National Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies Coalition
Osteogenesis Imperfecta Foundation
Population Association of America
PXE International
Society for Maternal Fetal Medicine
Society for Pediatric Nephrology
Society for Pediatric Research
Society for Research in Child Development
Society for the Study of Reproduction
Spina Bifida Association of America
The Arc of the United States
The Catholic Health Association of the United States
United Cerebral Palsy
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops