Contact: Clare Hagerty, University of Washington, (206) 685-1323 / clareh@u.washington.edu; Tamara Hargens-Bradley, Oregon Health & Science University, (503) 494-8231 / hargenst@ohsu.edu
UW, WSU, OHSU to Collaborate in Landmark National Children’s Health Study
SEATTLE, Wash. -- The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has
announced a grant of approximately $40 million over five years to
the Pacific Northwest Center for the National Children's Study at
the University of Washington to partner with Washington State
University, Oregon Health & Science University, and local
communities in Washington's Grant County and Oregon's Marion
County.
The study center will recruit participants and collect data in the
largest study of child health ever conducted in the United
States.
Part of a comprehensive study on the interaction of genes and the
environment on children's health, this national collaborative
effort includes the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
at NIH, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. When it
is fully operational, the study is expected to include from 36 to
50 study centers in the planned 105 study locations throughout the
United States.
The Pacific Northwest Center for the National Children's Study was
initiated in 2007 to enroll participants in King County,
Washington. As part of the King County study location, the UW has
partnered with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and
Public Health -- Seattle & King County on a number of
activities to help engage the local community, such as working
together to reach women of childbearing age in King County.
The plans announced today by NIH give approval to the Pacific
Northwest Center for the National Children's Study to partner with
Oregon Health & Science University and Marion County
communities, and Washington State University, Grant County Health
District, Quincy Community Health Center and Grant County
communities in two additional study locations in the Pacific
Northwest.
"This is a fantastic opportunity to partner with communities in
order to help children and families across Washington, Oregon, and
throughout the U.S. to shape child health guidance, interventions,
and policy for generations to come," said Elaine Faustman, director
of the study center and professor in the UW Dept. of Environmental
and Occupational Health Sciences. The lead investigator for the
Marion County location is Dr. Gail Houck. Dr. Patricia Butterfield
is the lead investigator for the Grant County location.
"Our WSU team is excited to be partnering with UW to work in Grant
County and to be collaborating with our local partners, WSU
Extension, Grant County Health District, and Promotores de Salud in
Quincy," said Butterfield, professor and dean of the Washington
State University College of Nursing. "As a scientist, a citizen,
and a parent, I am committed to doing all we can to contribute to
the success of this remarkable study of children's health."
The WSU study center office will be housed in the WSU Spokane
College of Nursing.
"Dr. Bill Lambert, co-investigator, and I look forward to
partnering with the UW and WSU as part of the Pacific Northwest
Center for the National Children's Study," said Houck, professor of
Academic Graduate and Interdisciplinary Programs at Oregon Health
& Science University's School of Nursing. "We are pleased to be
collaborating with the Commission on Children and Families and the
Public Health Department of Marion County. It is a tremendous
opportunity to be a part this national effort to understand and
influence the health of children and their families."
Tom Burbacher, UW professor of Environmental and Occupational
Health Sciences, and Shirley Beresford, UW professor of
Epidemiology and a member of the Public Health Sciences Division at
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, are co-directors of the
Pacific Northwest Center for the National Children's Study, which
is housed in the UW School of Public Health and Community
Medicine.
The National Children's Study will follow a representative 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. In the Pacific Northwest, plans are underway
to recruit over 4,000 participants at four study locations.
In total, the study will be conducted in 105 previously designated
study locations across the United States that together are
representative of the entire U.S. population. A national
probability sample was used to select the counties in the study,
which took into account factors including race and ethnicity,
income, education level, number of births, and number of babies
born with low birth weights.
The Study began in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000,
when Congress directed the NICHD and other federal agencies to
undertake a national, long-term study of children's health and
development in relation to environmental exposures. This
announcement builds on the momentum of earlier major Study
milestones, including the release of the Study Plan and Study
locations in 2004, the establishment in 2005 of the first 7 Study
Centers, referred to as Vanguard Centers, and the announcement of
22 Study Centers in 2007.
The UW is a national leader in child health research, with many
established researchers and centers concerned with children's
health. In particular, UW researchers at the new Pacific Northwest
Center will build on lessons learned from the current EPA/NIEHS
funded Children's Environmental Health Risk Research Center that
has followed children in agricultural communities for more than
eight years through community-based research partnerships.