The Mothers and Children's Environmental Health (MOCEH) study.
The MOCEH study is a prospective hospital- and community-based cohort study designed to collect information related to environmental exposures (chemical, biological, nutritional, physical, and psychosocial) during pregnancy and childhood and to examine how exposure to environmental pollutants affects growth, development, and disease. The MOCEH network includes one coordinating center, four local centers responsible for recruiting pregnant women, and four evaluation centers (a nutrition center, bio-repository center, neurocognitive development center, and environment assessment center). At the local centers, trained nurses interview the participants to gather information regarding their demographic and socioeconomic characteristics, complications related to the current gestation period, health behaviors and environmental factors. These centers also collect samples of blood, placenta, urine, and breast milk. Environmental hygienists measure each participant's level of exposure to indoor and outdoor pollutants during the pre- and postnatal periods. The participants are followed up through delivery and until the child is 5 years of age. The MOCEH study plans to recruit 1,500 pregnant women between 2006 and 2010 and to perform follow-up studies on their children. We expect this study to provide evidence to support the hypothesis that the gestational environment has an effect on the development of diseases during adulthood. We also expect the study results to enable evaluation of latency and age-specific susceptibility to exposure to hazardous environmental pollutants, evaluation of growth retardation focused on environmental and genetic risk factors, selection of target environmental diseases in children, development of an environmental health index, and establishment of a national policy for improving the health of pregnant women and their children.
Kim
Byung-Mi
BM
Department of Preventive Medicine, School of Medicine, Ewha Medical Research Center, Ewha Womans University, 911-1 Mok 6-dong, Yangcheon-Gu, Seoul, Korea.
Ha
Mina
M
Park
Hye-Sook
HS
Lee
Bo Eun
BE
Kim
Young Ju
YJ
Hong
Yun-Chul
YC
Kim
Yangho
Y
Chang
Namsoo
N
Roh
Young-Man
YM
Kim
Boong-Nnyun
BN
Oh
Se-young
SY
Ha
Eun-Hee
EH
D000328:Adult; D015331:Cohort Studies; D055812:Community-Based Participatory Research; D003625:Data Collection; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000009:adverse effects*; D062665:Epidemiological Monitoring; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D007723:Korea / Q000453:epidemiology; D018811:Maternal Exposure / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors
D004785:Environmental Pollutants