National Children's Study Examines Children's Health

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/16/health/16child.html?pagewanted=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

The National Children's Study, a project started last January, aims to enroll 100,00 pregnant women in 105 countries, then monitor their babies until they turn 21. There are several hundred participants so far. The projected cost for this project is about $6.7 billion.

This study will examine how environment, genes and other factors affect children's health. "This is a very important study for understanding the health of our nation's children and for identifying factors that may play a role downstream in adult health," said Dr. Francis S. Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, which is overseeing the study.

While many experts are praising the study, it has also stirred controversy. The Senate committee overseeing financing for the study accused it of a "serious breach of trust" for not disclosing that the initial price tag of $3.1 billion would more than double.

An independent panel of experts and some members of the study's own advisory committee say it misses important opportunities to help people and communities, emphasizing narrower medical questions over concerns like racial and ethnic health differences.

Some changes are being made, putting all but the pilot phase on hold while conducting an inquiry into the cost and scientific underpinnings. The results of this study could be very important to our country, however we should make sure we do it right. "This study is of the magnitude of the accelerator in CERN, or a trip to the moon - a really big science issue," said Milton Kotelchuck, a professor at the Boston University School of Public Health and a member of the independent panel. "But if you have a flawed beginning, then you've got 20 years of working on a flawed study."