Nassau County Selected as Site for National Children’s Study
Nassau is one of only 105 study locations selected nationwide
Nassau County will become part of the largest and most comprehensive study of children’s health and development ever conducted in the United States. The goal of the National Children’s Study is to better understand the link between the environments in which children are raised and their physical and mental health and development. Nassau County Department of Health will work collaboratively with a team of investigators lead by nationally-recognized Drs. Philip Landrigan and Leo Trasande of Mount Sinai School of Medicine.
Mount Sinai has long been a leader in the study, prevention and treatment of environmental disease and was selected as one of only seven “Vanguard Centers” country-wide to implement the National Children’s study in Nassau County as well as in four additional counties in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area.
“I am proud to announce that Nassau County has been selected as one of only 105 study locations country-wide for the groundbreaking National Children’s Study,” said Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi. “This study, just one more aspect of our Healthy Nassau initiative, will help us to achieve our goal to make Nassau the healthiest county in the U.S. The National Children’s Study will not only improve the lives of all our children in years to come, but also will save our county, state and nation billions of dollars in future health care costs.”
The National Children’s Study will follow a representative national sample of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information to prevent and treat some of the nation’s most pressing health problems including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. The study will enroll approximately 1,000 newborn children in Nassau County within four years and will follow these children for 21 years. If possible, women will be identified and enrolled prior to their pregnancy so that the study can begin prior to birth.
In total, the study will be conducted in 105 previously-designated study locations across the United States that together represents the entire U.S. population. The locations were selected to ensure that children across the nation from diverse ethnic, racial, economic, religious, geographic and social groups are fairly represented.
In these locations, study teams will work with health care professionals and community leaders to recruit women for the study who are pregnant or who are likely to have a child in the near future.
Families who are enrolled in the study will participate in a minimum of 15 in-person visits with local research teams in the families’ homes and in clinical settings. These visits will begin during the women’s first trimester of pregnancy, or earlier, and continue through the child’s 21st birthday.
The study was authorized by the Children’s Health Act of 2000, and is sponsored by a consortium of six federal agencies working together to improve the health of the nation’s children through the successful completion of the National Children’s’ Study. These agencies are: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS).
Initial findings are scheduled to be available within several years after the start of the study.
Women in Nassau County who are interested in learning more about the study may contact the Nassau County Department of Health weekdays at (516) 227- 9408.
For additional information, visit the National Children’s Study website at: www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov.
