Cache County, USU join children's health study

Cache County was named one of 22 new study locations for the National Children's Study today. Utah State University will conduct the study on the county's behalf, in cooperation with the University of Utah.

It's an unusual study in that participants have not yet been born and some of the founding researchers will likely die before the study is complete. The plan is to enroll women of childbearing age in specific target neighborhoods, then follow subsequent pregnancies through birth and into adulthood. It's not unlikely, officials said, that the subjects could be followed their wholes lives, with a passing of the baton from one generation of researchers to the next.

Officially, the study will follow subjects until they are 21, but Sean Firth, Utah project director, said, "It would be a huge mistake once we identify a cohort of this size to disband and let it go away. I would hope we'd continue to follow them until they're dead ...."

Two years ago, Salt Lake County was named one of seven initial Vanguard Centers nationally. The University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, supported by Primary Children's Medical Center and government and healthcare agencies, was awarded a $16 million contract and Dr. Edward B. Clark, chairman of pediatrics at the U. School of Medicine, was named principal investigator, a title he also holds for the Cache County/USU center. Richard N. Roberts, Ph.D., professor of psychology at USU, is co-investigator in Cache County.

"This is the boldest, most comprehensive, most complete children's study ever launched," Clark said.

The National Children's Study will look at environmental and genetic factors that impact a child's development and health, even tackling issues of "nature vs. nurture."

Researchers expect to track 100,000 U.S. children and along the way learn about common diseases and conditions, including autism, diabetes, attention deficit disorders, obesity and birth defects, among others. The study will consider everything from environmental variables, a mother's nutrition, the effect of bad air quality, genetics and more. They plan to take samples from the child's environment, as well.

Utah is expected to enroll 2,250. There's even a plan to transfer to another study site, families that move. "We've built in the ability to hand them off," Clark said. Families will be able to drop out at any time, without compromising the information that's already been gleaned.