The UC Davis Health System has been selected as a new site for the National Children's Study, which is assessing the effects of environmental and genetic factors on 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 in the United States. It is the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States.

The new center will manage community engagement, local recruitment and data collection on 2,000 children in Sacramento and San Mateo counties. One of 22 new centers and the only one in Northern California, UC Davis will receive nearly $31.8 million over seven years for its portion of the study.

"We have an excellent research team of pediatricians and specialists in environmental, family and women's health, along with a solid track record with large-scale population studies focused on children's health risks and environmental exposures," said Irva Hertz-Picciotto, a professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, who will lead the UC Davis center. "Our capabilities and experience match the goals and the plan for the National Children's Study perfectly, and we are excited about the opportunity and ready to contribute to this landmark effort."

The National Children's Study is led by a consortium of federal agency partners, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the National Institutes of Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The overall goal of the study is to learn about the causes and contributing factors for some of the nation's most pressing childhood health problems, including autism, asthma, diabetes and obesity. This knowledge will help public health workers and health care providers devise ways to prevent these conditions, or at least reduce their severity.

"The problems we are seeing in pediatric practice need to be better understood to be treated effectively," said Richard Pan, a pediatrician and member of the study research team. "Data from the National Children's Study will give us the knowledge to change health trends that start during childhood and lead to poor health later in life. Our participation in this study will increase our understanding of these health issues in both our local community and nationwide."

"I extend my congratulations to Hertz-Picciotto and her research team and look forward to seeing the results of the study come to fruition. By taking the steps to examine childhood health issues and trends now, we are working to improve the health of generations to come," said U.S. Rep. Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento).

Claire Pomeroy, dean of the UC Davis School of Medicine and vice chancellor for Human Health Sciences, said, "By building on our reputation for community engagement, we will help guide efforts in prevention, intervention and health policy for children throughout Northern California and across the United States."

UC Davis is a national leader in child health research. In addition to a comprehensive children's hospital and research institute focused on childhood neurodevelopment, UC Davis has led several unique, large-scale epidemiological studies focused on children's health.

One recently completed study revealed connections between chemical components of air pollution and bronchitis diagnoses in preschoolers. Another just-recently launched study is looking for biological markers and environmental triggers of autism in its earliest possible phases, beginning during pregnancy and through age 3. The principal investigator on both of those studies is Hertz-Picciotto.

"A lot of my research is based on the importance of the prenatal period to understanding later health events in a child's life," she said. "We'll be recruiting women who are pregnant or considering becoming pregnant into the National Children's Study so we include the early gestation period in our data."

In total, the study will be conducted in 105 designated study locations across the United States that together are representative of the entire U.S. population. A national probability sample was used to select the counties in the study, which took into account representation of rural, urban and major metropolitan areas, as well as all four regions of the country (Northeast, Midwest, South and West).

The National Children's Study began in response to the Children's Health Act of 2000, when Congress directed the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and other federal agencies to undertake a national, long-term study of children's health and development in relation to environmental exposures.

More information: www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov.

Karen Finney is a senior public information officer for the UC Davis Health System.