Lessons Learned for the National Children’s Study from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research

Abstract

This mini-monograph was developed to highlight the experiences of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)/U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Centers for Children’s Environmental Health and Disease Prevention Research, focusing particularly on several areas of interest for the National Children’s Study. These include general methodologic issues for conducting longitudinal birth cohort studies and community-based participatory research and for measuring air pollution exposures, pesticide exposures, asthma, and neuro-behavioral toxicity. Rather than a detailed description of the studies in each of the centers, this series of articles is intended to provide information on the practicalities of conducting such intensive studies and the lessons learned. This explication of lessons learned provides an outstanding opportunity for the planners of the National Children’s Study to draw on past experiences that provide information on what has and has not worked when studying diverse multiracial and multi-ethnic groups of children with unique urban and rural exposures. The Children’s Centers have addressed and overcome many hurdles in their efforts to understand the link between environmental exposures and health outcomes as well as interactions between exposures and a variety of social and cultural factors. Some of the major lessons learned include the critical importance of long-term studies for assessing the full range of developmental consequences of environmental exposures, recognition of the unique challenges presented at different life stages for both outcome and exposure measurement, and the importance of ethical issues that must be dealt with in a changing medical and legal environment. It is hoped that these articles will be of value to others who are embarking on studies of children’s environmental health.

Lessons learnt on recruitment and fieldwork from a pilot European human biomonitoring survey

“…Phipatanakul et al (2011) and Kimmel et al (2005) emphasized the necessity of improved communication but Adgate et al (2000) were confronted with a lack of interest of the local media in press-releases about a planned survey because the media was only interested in results. Instead, Adgate et al (2000) were more successful in recruiting families by direct contact of potential participants.…”

Methods for Investigating Gene-Environment Interactions in Candidate Pathway and Genome-Wide Association Studies

“…Hopefully, the new generation of much larger studies, with close attention to rigorous design and exposure measurement and more sophisticated statistical methods will remedy this defect. Several large are already established (56, 126) or being proposed (20, 73, 87); nested case-control studies within these cohorts may provide cost-efficient ways to further refine the exposure information needed for G×E studies. These approaches are likely to be more useful than pure genetic screens using shared controls (72, 119) for which no environmental comparisons will be possible.…”

Are We Ready for Genome-wide Association Studies?

“…Indeed, the GEI initiative involves a substantial commitment to developing new environmental measurements and incorporating them into GWA studies. Ironically, however, the GEI initiative coincided with the announcement of the cancellation of the National Children's Study (57), which could have set the groundwork for prospective evaluation of gene-environment interactions at least for common early-onset conditions (58), although an adult cohort would likely be more useful for studying most cancers, while also allowing for enrollment of their offspring and subsequent generations (59).…”