The Study will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 to examine the effects of environmental influences on their health and development.  Initially participants will include three distinct groups: pregnant women and their partners, couples planning pregnancy, and women who are of childbearing age but not planning pregnancy.

The National Children’s Study will be the first effort to capture environmental exposures prior to and early in pregnancy, and then to track so many participants for more than 20 years. The ability to examine multiple environmental exposures and link them in a cause-effect relationship with multiple outcomes is the defining characteristic of the Study.

The National Children’s Study will also look at important health issues such as:

• Birth defects and pregnancy-related problems
• Injuries
• Asthma
• Obesity and diabetes
• Behavior, learning, and mental health disorders

Designed as a longitudinal cohort study, the National Children’s Study will examine participants’ growth and development over time.  The results of the Study will provide unique, first-of-its-kind information valuable to scientists, health care providers, policy makers, and families and caregivers.

• Is national in scope and will include children and families from varied backgrounds, areas of the country, and family types
• Includes a wide range of environmental factors, such as biological, physical, genetic, social, cultural and other factors
• Results will be made public as the study progresses
• Involves partners from multiple government agencies as well as from public organizations and private companies
• Uses state-of-the-art technology
• Addresses multiple questions on multiple issues 

The Study is moving into the implementation and recruitment stage. Researchers expect that the preliminary results from the first years of the study will be available in 2009-2010.

Beginning with birth outcomes, findings will become available within two to three years after the Study is launched.  Researchers expect that the preliminary results from the first years of the study will be available in 2009-2010. 

For a Study timeline, visit http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/stand/NCS-Timeline-10-03-08.pdf.

• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  • National Institutes of Health
    • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
    • National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

• Growing up Healthy: An Overview of the National Children’s Study
• The National Children’s Study and Your Community: Partners in Our Children’s Health
• The National Children’s Study