Project Description:
Utah State University is partnering with the University of Utah and institutions from across the nation on the Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) initiative. The goal is to follow children from the womb into childhood. This comprehensive investigation will combine existing Utah studies with those of other populations from across the country, expanding on longstanding collaborations between the University of Utah, Primary Childrens Hospital, Utah State University and hundreds of Utah families. What is currently called the Utah Childrens Project started as part of the National Childrens Study in 2009, and was in danger of terminating after NIH began shutting down that national study in 2012. Since then, local donors, participating families, and the University of Utah Department of Pediatrics, who see the value of the research, have been providing support to continue Utahs portion of the program. The funding from the National Institutes of Health ECHO initiative will allow us to continue working with children and families who were in the National Children Study and follow their health and education trajectory.
Experiences during sensitive developmental windows, including around the time of conception, later in pregnancy, and during infancy and early childhood, can have long-lasting effects on the health of children. These experiences encompass a broad range of exposures, from air pollution and chemicals in our neighborhoods, to societal factors such as stress, to individual behaviors like sleep and diet. They may act through any number of biological processes, for example changes in the expression of genes or development of the immune system.
This project along with 35 other research programs will enroll more than 50,000 children from diverse racial, geographic and socioeconomic backgrounds from across the U.S. Researchers will analyze existing data as well as follow study participants over time to address the early environmental origins of designated health conditions such as diabetes, obesity, autism, asthma, and premature birth. These investigations will help define some of the factors that contribute to health and disease, identify markers for early detection, and potentially methods for treatment and prevention.
We have re-enrolled participants from the National Children's Study into the new study and collected new assessment information. The Center for Persons with Disabilities site of the National Children's Study, here in Cache Valley, enrolled more families than any other site in the country. This year we will collaborate with another project from the University of Utah to enroll additional families. The national protocol has been in development and project staff will be trained to collect nationally selected measures. We will be completing these on enrolled families as appropriate to the assessment schedule.
ECHO will support multiple, synergistic, longitudinal studies using existing study populations, called cohorts, to investigate environmental exposures including physical, chemical, biological, social, behavioral, natural and built environments on child health and development. The studies will focus on four key pediatric outcomes that have a high public health impact:
Upper and lower airway
Obesity
Pre-, peri-, and postnatal outcomes
Neurodevelopment
The studies will share standardized core data elements managed by a central coordinating center and an associated data analysis center. The core elements to be addressed across all studies are:
Demographics
Typical early health and development
Genetic influences on early childhood health and development
Environmental factors
Patient/Person (parent and child) Reported Outcomes (PROs)
Target Audience:
Students/Trainees (long or intermediate trainees), Professionals and Para-Professionals, Legislators/Policy Makers, General Public
Unserved or Under-served Populations:
Racial or Ethnic Minorities, Disadvantaged Circumstances, Limited English, Geographic Areas, Urban
