December 15, 2004
Dr. Duane Alexander, Director
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
National Institutes of Health
31 Center Drive, MSC 2425
Bethesda, MD 20892-2425
Dear Dr. Alexander:
We are pleased that NICHD continues to demonstrate such strong leadership with the National Children’s Study, which was mandated by Congress in the Children’s Health Act of 2000. NICHD has been working effectively with Federal partners at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control. We have watched as funding to date has allowed you to identify various panels of scientific advisors, develop Study hypotheses, convene working groups on measurement and Study design, conduct “pilot studies,” and design the core protocol. We understand that funding for 2005 has now enabled you to launch the implementation phase of the Study, in the form of soliciting proposals from institutions to manage initial Vanguard Study locations and a coordinating center. We appreciate that the Study will require increased funding for recruitment and data collection to begin in 2007, and for the national probability sample to be realized in the proposed 96 locations. We believe that it is imperative that the Study receive dedicated funding in order to proceed, so as not to compete with the already broad research portfolio at the NICHD and your Federal partners.
The National Children’s Study will be the largest long-term study of child health and development ever conducted in the United States, ultimately designed to yield knowledge that could prevent or minimize the impact of countless conditions in childhood. It promises to be relevant to future programs not only in child health and development, but also programs relevant to child safety, social needs, and education. Similar studies of this scope with adults (e.g., Framingham Heart Study) continue to yield invaluable knowledge with direct public health benefit more than fifty years later.
The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) was established in 1933 by the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences. The Society’s goals are to advance research in child development, to foster an interdisciplinary consideration of substantive and methodological problems in the field of child development, and to encourage applications of research findings. In light of these goals, we appreciate that the National Children’s Study plan is an interdisciplinary effort, and that it recognizes the importance of studying all aspects of child development, including cognitive, behavioral, social, emotional, and biological aspects. Further, we are pleased that the proposed study design will provide a scaffold for focused and creative developmental research over many years, and will be able to incorporate both new advances in science and pressing scientific needs. We are pleased that the National Children’s Study will establish ongoing collaboration with both communities and researchers for many years to come.
SRCD welcomes opportunities to support the NICHD in its important work, including leadership of this landmark interdisciplinary study.
Sincerely,
Mary Ann McCabe, PhD
Director, Office for Policy and Communications
Society for Research in Child Development
John W. Hagen, PhD
Executive Officer
Society for Research in Child Development
Aletha C. Huston, PhD
President Elect
Society for Research in Child Development
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