An alliance composed of Michigan's top three research universities, two leading health care systems, and state and local health agencies will join together in a national research project to study how the environment affects the health and development of children.

The National Children's Study (NCS), the largest national children's health study of its kind, will monitor the health of more than 100,000 children nationally from before birth to age 21.  Michigan's study sample size represents a population of 5,000 and and Michigan researchers will recruit and monitor approximately 1,000 participants in Wayne County for the initial phase of the program.

Michigan State University will lead Michigan's role in the project, which is believed to be the most ambitious children's health study of its kind.  Nigel Paneth, an MSU professor of epidemiology, and pediatrics and human development, will direct the study.

Project collaborators include MSU, Wayne State University, the University of Michigan, Children's Hospital of Michigan, Henry Ford Health System, Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH), and Wayne County and city of Detroit health departments.

"No children's health study of this size or scope has ever been undertaken," Paneth said. "The results should provide critical information about environmental influences and effects on the  health of children .

"Environmental influences are broadly defined," Paneth added. "We are examining the effects of environmental toxins, nutrition and family and societal structures." 
"By studying children through several phases of growth and development, including their development before birth, we will be better able to understand the role of these factors on health and disease."

The first phase of the Michigan part of this project focuses on Wayne County. Participant recruitment is expected to begin sometime in 2009.
In the future, it is anticipated that the study will include four other Michigan counties that were selected to be among the 105 counties representing the U.S. in the NCS: Genesee, Grand Traverse, Lenawee and Macomb counties.

Planning for this project began in 2002 when MSU and the other partners formed the Michigan Alliance for the National Children's Study, or MANCS. The idea, said Paneth, was that each institution brings unique skills to the table.

"The structure of MANCS reflects a sustained collaborative effort among Michigan State, Wayne State, University of Michigan and Henry Ford which collectively account for 96 percent of NIH research dollars in Michigan," Paneth said.

Each institution will play a specific role in the study.

• U-M will be responsible for enrolling and interviewing study participants and assessing post-natal child development.
• WSU will oversee the assessment and care of pregnant women.
• Children's Hospital of Michigan will serve as the repository for biological samples.
• Henry Ford Health System will serve as the repository for environmental samples and will perform medical examinations of children.
• MSU will coordinate the overall work of the study, and house the project at its East Lansing campus. MSU Extension will help develop community support for the study.
• MDCH will provide information related to live birth characteristics and locations in Wayne County.

"It's important that Michigan be a part of the largest and most comprehensive national study of child health ever mounted," Paneth said. "But we also expect that issues especially important to the health of Michigan children will be addressed, leading to new ways of treating and preventing disease in our children and to new public health programs in our state."

"For many years I have treated children in my practice in Detroit where we have hypothesized that environmental influences have had a detrimental effect on children's health, said Dr. Charles Barone, professor of Pediatrics at Wayne State University, Director of Pediatrics at Henry Ford Health System and Pediatrician  at Children's Hospital of Michigan.  "This nationwide study will provide the concrete data needed to link specific environmental influences on health outcomes of children."