Three Cal State Campuses Chosen to Participate in Largest Study of Children’s Health

 

(Oct. 15, 2008) –Three California State University campuses have been selected as study centers in the National Children’s Study (NCS), the largest study of child health and development ever conducted in the United States.  CSU Bakersfield is the most recent addition to the NCS, and will join Cal State San Bernardino and San Diego State University in the nationwide study.  The NCS will follow a representative sample from 22 centers of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21, seeking information to prevent and treat some of the nation’s most pressing health problems including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity.  CSU’s participation includes:

Cal State San Bernardino – Will partner with Loma Linda University to lead the San Bernardino County location, which will manage local participant recruitment and data collection.  The San Bernardino NCS team have started pre-recruitment activities, including hiring and training staff and meeting with local community groups, with participant recruitment to begin in 2010.

San Diego State – Will partner with the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, along with the First 5 Commission and the San Diego Department of Health and Human Services Agency.  The San Diego coalition will begin study operations in 2007, and will deliver some of the first outcome measures of the NCS, available as early as 2010, centering around environmental effects on birth outcomes including physical anomalies. 

Cal State Bakersfield – Will partner with the University of California, Berkeley, University of California, Irvine, and the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.  Medical and technical staff from the Kern County Department of Public Health and Kern Medical Center will also be actively involved in the study.  Study researchers hope to gain insight into the genesis of important health issues by examining environmental factors such as air, water, and house dust; what children eat, how they are cared for, the safety of their neighborhoods, and how often they see a doctor.  Planning for the local portion of the study will begin immediately with approximately 1,000 Kern County participants enrolled by early 2011. 

The National Children’s Study is a collaborative effort between 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 Institute of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The study began in response to the Children’s Health Act of 2000 when Congress directed the NICHD and other federal agencies to undertake a national, long-term study of children’s health and development in relation to environmental exposures.  Eventually, there will be 105 NCS locations (12 in California), with each identifying and following 1,000 children.  The study locations are representative of the entire U.S. population.

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About the California State University
The California State University is the largest system of senior higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, approximately 450,000 students and 46,000 faculty and staff. Since the system was created in 1961, it has awarded nearly 2.5 million degrees, about 90,000 annually. Its mission is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever-changing needs of the people of California. With its commitment to excellence, diversity and innovation, the CSU is the university system that is working for California.