Waisman Center to participate in
long-term study of children’s health
Pat Mitchell
Waisman Center University Relations Specialist
10/3/2005
The
Waisman Center, along with a number
of UW departments and schools, the Medical College of Wisconsin, and a
consortium of community organizations, will participate in the National
Children’s Study, a decades-long study of the health and well-being of children.
The study will involve 100,000 children across the United States from before
birth to age 21 and will investigate the links between children’s environments
and their health. It is envisioned as the first, major long-term investigation
of the health of American children since the 1960s.
Five other institutions were named as initial “Study Centers” or “Vanguard
Centers” in an announcement by the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development (NICHD) on September 29. The five-year award for the Wisconsin
effort is for $16.2 million.
The project is a natural fit for the Waisman Center, which focuses on human
development, developmental disabilities, and neurodegenerative diseases,
according to director
Marsha Mailick
Seltzer, PhD. “It is a great privilege for the Waisman Center to be involved
in this national ground-breaking effort to study environmental and risk factors
affecting child development, prenatally through young adulthood.”
The new study will examine important health issues, including birth defects and
pregnancy-related problems, injuries, asthma, obesity and diabetes, and
behavior, learning, and mental health disorders. By establishing links between
children’s environments and their health and charting their development through
infancy, childhood, and early adulthood, the goal is to determine the root
causes of many childhood and adult diseases.
 The
UW’s Waisman Center and the Medical College of Wisconsin are the lead partners
for the Study Center in Wisconsin, which will be implemented in Waukesha County.
Co-principal investigators are
Maureen Durkin,
PhD, DrPH, associate professor of population health sciences, UW Medical School,
and Chris Cronk, ScD, associate professor of pediatrics, Medical College of
Wisconsin.
The Waukesha Study Center is an unprecedented collaboration between Wisconsin
institutions, according to Durkin. “The only way to mount a study of this
magnitude and complexity is to involve the expertise and resources of a broad
coalition of community and academic partners,” she says.
At UW-Madison, partners will include the Applied Population Laboratory,
Comprehensive Cancer Center, Department of Pediatrics, Department of Psychology,
School of Education, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy, UW Survey Center,
and the Wisconsin Center for Educational Research.
Other collaborators in the Waukesha Study Center include the Wisconsin
Department of Health and Family Services, the National Opinion Research Center,
Marquette University, UW-Milwaukee Center for Urban Initiatives Research, UW
Marine and Freshwater Biomedical Sciences Center/Institute for Environmental
Health, and the Children’s Service Society of Wisconsin.
In addition, the Waukesha County Health and Human Services, ProHealth Care,
Covenant Health Care, Community Memorial Hospital, Waukesha Family Practice
Center, Casa de Esperanza, and medical practices serving Waukesha County
residents will be integrally involved in study activities. Other community
agencies and medical and health practices will be engaged in the study as it
moves forward.
The Study Centers were identified through a rigorous national probability
selection method designed to ensure that children across the nation are fairly
represented. The selected centers demonstrated advanced clinical research and
data collection capabilities, with the ability to collect and manage biological
and environmental specimens; with community networks for identifying,
recruiting, and retaining eligible families; and a commitment to the protection
and privacy of data.
The five other institutions and corresponding sites for the initial Study
Centers are: University of California, Irvine (Orange County); University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Duplin County); Mount Sinai School of Medicine
(Queens County); Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (Montgomery County); and
University of Utah (Salt Lake County). Eventually, 105 sites will be identified.
Planning for the National Children’s Study begins on October 1, 2005, and will
continue to June 30, 2007. Findings from the study will be made available as the
research progresses.
Additional information about the National Children’s Study can be found at
http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/
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