Three babies born recently in West Jordan and Salt Lake City will be Utah's first participants in a decades-long study that seeks to improve the health of children nationwide.

Researchers at the University of Utah announced the births Tuesday after teams of interviewers canvassed selected neighborhoods in Salt Lake County, looking for parents of children soon to be born who are willing to participate for at least 20 years.

The National Children's Health Study is the largest ever mounted by the federal government to assess the effects of the environment, including the home, on childhood health. It seeks to follow as many as 100,000 children from birth to adulthood, examining things such as the food children eat, the air they breathe, their schools and neighborhoods, the frequency of visits to the doctor and even the composition of dust in their homes.

Interviewers began visiting more than 7,000 Salt Lake County households in May and have talked with a household member in about 82 percent of those homes to identify eligible women to join the study. Enrollment of families expecting children will continue for the next five years.

A news release announcing the births did not provide the names of the new babies or their families who will take part in the taxpayer-funded research, and officials have created a framework that will keep participants' names and information confidential unless they choose to share it, said spokeswoman Pam Silberman.

Dr. Ed Clark, the study's principal investigator, told the Deseret News earlier this year that those who choose to participate will be compensated at the rate of about $25 per hour for their time. For a first-year participant, the total compensation would be about $500, Clark said.

"No one will rush out to do this for the money," he said, but officials want participants to know they value their time and willingness to participate.

Personal information will be logged by participants into an encrypted laptop computer and immediately transmitted to a third-party coordinating center database in Washington, D.C., where the information will be "de-identified" from the name of the participant, Clark said.

"These are not the feds," he said. "It's not like giving your information to the IRS. The information will be de-identified and stored that way," along with information from thousands of other participants nationwide.

By compiling an unprecedented amount of detail on children in their environments, researchers hope to find clues to improve childhood health for future generations.

e-mail: carrie@desnews.com