Study To Track Children's Health For Over Two Decades
(Washington, DC) -- Researchers will track 100-thousand American kids until their 21st birthdays in a new three-billion-dollar study. The research gets underway in January when the University of North Carolina and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York start signing up pregnant women whose babies would then be followed to age 21. The study will try to determine factors that could cause such conditions as autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, heart disease and other disorders. National Institute of Health officials say they hope the National Children's Study will help narrow down early influences that affect development later on. It will examine the parents' DNA and take samples of chemicals and even dust in their homes. An NIH official says the long term results are expected to lead to "significant savings in the nation's health care costs." |