Workers this summer counted every house in 15 preselected neighborhoods that will be Salt Lake County's part of the National Children's Study. And study coordinators have enlisted support from civic leaders in the represented towns — all a ramp-up to early 2009 when teams start enrolling women of child-bearing age in a gigantic, long-term children's health study.

The National Institutes of Health oversees the study, expected to span 25-plus years and generate copious data on genetic and environmental factors that impact health, starting at conception. Women in preselected neighborhoods will enroll before they're pregnant, and the study will follow any pregnancies and the resulting child into adulthood, using genetic and environmental samples to find factors that affect health.

The Salt Lake County Vanguard Center, housed in the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics with support from Primary Children's Medical Center, Utah State University and other agencies, will oversee data collection in urban Salt Lake County, rural Cache County and frontier sites in Wyoming and Idaho.

Today's grade-schoolers are the first "at risk of being less healthy than their parents," said Dr. Edward B. Clark, medical director at Primary Children's, chairman of U. pediatrics and lead investigator for the local vanguard center.

Congress is investing a lot of money on the study — in Utah alone, millions of dollars. But the cost of children's health problems is far more. And each federal dollar spent on the study is expected to generate at least $3 locally.

There are, Clark said, some "frightening" theories on why so many children are obese or have autism or asthma. Is acetaminophen linked to asthma? Does gingivitis trigger premature labor? Clark said 95 percent of us carry pesticide residue, and 98 percent of biopsied fat cells have detectable levels of Teflon. But what does it all mean? The study is meant to answer many questions.

This is how complex it is: The egg that becomes a child born tomorrow was set up two generations ago, when that baby's maternal grandmother got pregnant. Exposures, genetics, economics and environmental quality may all play a role in health as that baby grows up, says Clark.

Leslie Palmer, Salt Lake's head study coordinator, led the teams, made up largely of public health students from the U., on their initial foray into the field.

They are currently hiring workers who will be a good cultural fit in the neighborhoods they enumerate. "We get one chance," says Jan Johnson, local administrative director, "to see that those representing the study are well-accepted as a face at that door."

And they're coordinating with local police, says community relations director Pam Silberman, not only to keep enumerators safe but to reassure communities they belong and are not engaged in suspicious activity.

Nationally, the plan is to study 100,000 live births, including 1,250 in Salt Lake County, 1,000 in Cache County and 600 in the Wyoming-Idaho area. Enrollment will span five years. Advocates hope the study will last decades, not just one generation.

Concerns about "clear and palpable changes in children's health" cross borders, says Clark, who will soon visit Japan where a similar national study is being undertaken. The two countries plan to collect similar data.

---

E-mail: lois@desnews.com