Schuylkill County’s children health study

Children from Schuylkill County will participate in the largest national study of how genetics and the environment affect children’s health

The $3.2 billion National Children’s Study, which will follow 100,000 children in 105 areas across the country from conception — or before — to age 21, will begin in Montgomery County in November 2008 and in Schuylkill County in July 2009.

Schuylkill, Montgomery, Westmoreland and Philadelphia counties in Pennsylvania are among the 105 locations that will recruit participants. Each site will have a goal of enrolling at least 250 newborns each year for four or five years.

Physicians in the study will visit mothers during pregnancy, collect specimens and information during delivery and follow-up with visits at 6 and 12 months of age, then every three years after.

“People are born with certain genes, but we don’t know what turns them on or off,” Schwarz said. “The study will look at what happens before birth and sometimes even before conception, that influences how genes are turned on or off.”

It will also examine environmental influences – such as air and water pollution – and other factors, including what children eat, how they are cared for and the safety of their neighborhoods, National Institutes of Health officials say.

NIH has selected “study centers” to lead the recruitment and enrollment efforts. Among them is Pottsville Hospital and Warne Clinic in Schuylkill County.

“We’re excited about it. Most definitely,” said Mike Peckman, spokesman for Pottsville Hospital, which is the only facility in the county that delivers babies.

This post was abstracted, with permission, from an article written by Chris Parker of the Morning Call.