TEXT ON THE SCREEN: THE NATIONAL CHILDREN’S STUDY – HEALTH, GROWTH, ENVIRONMENT.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When I grow up, I want to be a singer.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When I grow up, I want to be a dentist.
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NARRATOR: Every child grows up with dreams of the future: their own, their parents, their family.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want to be a mechanical engineer.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: A doctor.
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NARRATOR: And every one of those dreams starts with being healthy.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I think I’m going to be a professional piano player.
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NARRATOR: There is nothing more fundamental.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want to be a baseball payer.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: A ferryboat captain.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I think I’ll be an elementary schoolteacher or maybe a nurse practitioner.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I want her to be strong.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I want him to be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I just want him to be healthy.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I want him to be happy.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I just want to help her follow her dreams.
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DUANE ALEXANDER, MD, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: Every American parent wants the very best for their children. They want them to grow healthy, exposed to the best education that they can get so that they have the optimum chance to reach adulthood free of disease and disability and able to achieve their full potential.
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NARRATOR: That’s why hundreds of thousands of Americans -- children and their families -- will be joining forces, coming together to participate in the National Children’s Study.
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EDWARD B. CLARK, M.D., CHAIR, DEPARTMENT OF PEDIATRICS, UNIVERSITY OF UTAH, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH: The National Children’s Study is the largest, boldest, and most innovative study of children’s health and disease ever done.
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YVONNE T. MADDOX, PhD, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF CHILD HEALTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT: It will be a representation of the nation’s children, which means that it will include children from all socioeconomic groups and children from all races and ethic groups.
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DONALD J. DUDLEY, MD, PROFESSOR, OBSTRETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY, SAN ANTONIO: The National Children’s Study is a study of 100,000 children to try to understand the role of environment in child health and disease.
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NARRATOR: This landmark health effort, the largest and most comprehensive health study of children ever, will enrich the future with invaluable medical knowledge, helping generations of American children lead healthier lives.
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DR. MADDOX: I see this as the first opportunity for our nation’s children to get their fair due.
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DR. ALEXANDER: It will involve 100,000 children and families over the course of 21 years.
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TINA CHENG, MD, CHIEF GENEAL PEDIATRICS, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Those 100,000 children will represent 100,000 mothers, 100,000 fathers, and aunts and uncles and communities scattered all across the United States. And from this we’ll learn very important lessons about health and about disease.
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PETER C. SCHEIDT, MD, MPH, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CHILDREN’S STUDY: The National Children’s Study will focus on just how environmental exposures interact with the genetic information to either result in or prevent healthy and productive children.
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DR. DUDLEY: We have an ongoing epidemic of certain childhood diseases, for example, asthma.
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DR. MADDOX: Infant mortality.
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DR. CHENG: Obesity.
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DR. CLARK: Diabetes.
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FERNANDO GUERRA, MD, MPH, DIRECTOR OF HEALTH, SAN ANTONIO: Any number of risk-taking.
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MICHAEL SHANNON, MD, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SPECIALIST, CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL BOSTON: Autism.
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DR. SCHEIDT: Learning disabilities.
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DR. CLARK: Cardiovascular disease.
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DR. SCHEIDT: And even injuries.
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DR. GUERRA: Increases that we’re seeing in Diabetes Type II, which we didn’t see 10 or 125 years ago.
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DR. DUDLEY: A number of diseases which are new diseases for us that weren’t around 30, 40 years ago to the degree that they are now.
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LORETTA JONES, MA, DIRECTOR, HEALTHY AFRICAN AMERICAN FAMILIES, LOS ANGELES: There might be some trends that are going on now that we can’t counteract.
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DR. CLARK: Each one of us who is a health care professional, particularly a children’s health care professional, has seen this shift in children’s health over the last decades and we stop and pause and say, “Why?”
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MS. JONES: The study was conceived to look at child development from preconception all the way through until they’re 21-years old. We have not ever done this.
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DR. GUERRA: It will give us information and evidence that will provide better explanations and understanding for so many conditions that today are affecting not just an individual or groups of individuals but entire populations.
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DR. ALEXANDER: The National Children’s Study is our effort to understand one of the great mysteries in Pediatrics today. What role does environment play in causing diseases that we don’t know the cause of otherwise?
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MS. JONES: It goes from environmental to social to physical.
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DR. CHENG: Their prenatal environment.
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DR. DUDLEY: The food you eat.
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DR. CLARK: The water that we drink.
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DR. GUERRA: The quality of the air that we breathe.
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DR. MADDOX: The soil that the child plays in.
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DR. ALEXANDER: We have new tools for measuring the environment. We have the capability of looking at DNA now in relationship to the environment from the Human Genome Project. We have the computer and data management capabilities that allow us to put all this together for the very first time.
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DR. CLARK: And all at the same time we’re pledging in return to maintain the confidentiality of this information.
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NARRATOR: Getting those kinds of answers won’t be quick, but it’s already underway. Researchers are talking to hundreds of thousands of American, inviting them and their babies to take part. Each child will be enrolled at birth and followed for 21 years.
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DR. MADDOX: We are asking individuals to participate in this study as volunteers.
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MS. JONES: All of us love children. All of us want a healthy society and I think that’s one of the reasons why a young woman would want to be a part of it.
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DR. SHANNON: A father should want to be involved in this study just as much as a mother because the two of them are going to have a child and both of them equally want nothing more than for that child to have a healthy life and to become a healthy adult.
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PHYLLIS PETTIT NASSI, MSW, HUNTSMAN CANCER INSTITUTE, OTOE AND CHEROKEE, BEAR CLAN: It’s one of the greatest opportunities, I think, to participate in a study that involves future generations.
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MS. JONES: As a participant, they’re going to tell you a lot about the study. You can talk it over with your family members so that everybody knows what this is going to be like; and then there’s going to be some screening things that they’re going to do. There are going to be some questionnaires. Some of it will be done over the phone and some of it will be done in home visits.
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DR. DUDLEY: I mean it’s an opportunity for families to really make a significant contribution to understanding the health and disease of children in the United States. It’s a way to really give back to society, if you will, or contribute to society in a very meaningful and tangible way.
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DR. CHENG: A child’s health is very much dependent not only on the child’s social and physical environment, but also genetics and how the environment interacts. We’re going to learn a lot from the National Children’s Study.
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DR. DUDLEY: This is a critically important study at the right time with the right people doing it.
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MS. PETTIT NASSI: It’s a great opportunity to participate in something that’s going to make a huge difference.
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DR DUDLEY: I fully expect that in the future people will look back on this and they’ll say, “My kid was in the National Children’s Study,” and that will be a point of pride for that family.
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MS. JONES: This is not just about a research study. It’s about our community. It’s about our lives. It’s about families. It’s about our children.
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UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: I’d want to be in the National Children’s Study to learn why kids have allergies.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Why do they have asthma?
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Are overweight.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: To learn more about out health.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Our environment.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Because we need more answers about children’s health.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: For our kids.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: For everybody’s kids.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: I’d want to be in the National Children’s Study because it’s important.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: Because it’s important to me.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN: It’s time.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It’s time.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: It’s time.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It’s never been done before.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: It’s something I can do for America.
UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN: For my children’s children.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILDREN: Because when I grow up, I just want to be healthy.
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UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When I grow up I want to be a horseback rider.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want to fly airplanes.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want to work for the CIA and be a spy.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: I want to be a TV reporter.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN AND WOMAN: We just want our children to grow up healthy.
UNIDENTIFIED CHILD: When I grow up I’m not sure what I’m going to be, but it’s going to be fun.
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