title: The National Children's Study of environmental effects on child health and development.
abstract: Increasing recognition that children may be more susceptible than adults to environmental exposures and that they experience potentially life-long consequences of such exposures has led to widespread support for a large new cohort study in the United States. In this article, we propose a framework for a new cohort study of children, with follow-up beginning before birth and continuing to age 21 years. We also describe the administrative structure that has been built to develop the proposal further. The structure includes a partnership between federal and nonfederal scientists and relies on a collaborative, interdisciplinary research effort of unprecedented scale in medical research. We discuss briefly how the proposed cohort could be used to examine, among many other things, the effect of chemical contaminants in breast milk on children's health and development.
authors.affiliation: Infant and Child Health Studies Branch, National Center for Health Studies, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Hyattsville, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Amy M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Branum
authors.forename: Gwen W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Collman
authors.forename: Adolfo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Correa
authors.forename: Sarah A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Keim
authors.forename: Woodie
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Kessel
authors.forename: Carole A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Kimmel
authors.forename: Mark A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Klebanoff
authors.forename: Matthew P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Longnecker
authors.forename: Pauline
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Mendola
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rigas
authors.forename: Sherry G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Selevan
authors.forename: Peter C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Scheidt
authors.forename: Kenneth
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Schoendorf
authors.forename: Eleanor
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Smith-Khuri
authors.forename: Marshalyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yeargin-Allsopp
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008895:Milk, Human / Q000737:chemistry; D012107:Research Design
chemical_list: D004785:Environmental Pollutants