Researchers at Tulane University are participating in the National Children's Study to investigate factors influencing the development of such conditions as diabetes, obesity, autism, cerebral palsy, learning disabilities, birth defects and asthma.

"The National Children's Study will be the largest long-term study of environmental and genetic effects on children's health ever conducted in the United States," says LuAnn White, professor of Environmental Health Sciences at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, director of the Tulane Center for Applied Environmental Public Health and principal investigator of the study for Tulane.

The study will examine a very wide spectrum of factors that may impact children's health, according to White. Researchers will begin collecting data during clinical visits by pregnant mothers, continuing with children's visits to pediatricians. Visits and data collection will continue until each child is 21.

Tulane University is one of 36 centers for the National Children's Study around the country. Funded by the National Institutes of Health, the unprecedented study will monitor the health of approximately 100,000 children.

For more information, see: tulane.edu/news/newwave/100708_childrens_study.cfm

Tulane University
215 Gibson Hall
New Orleans
LA 70118-5698
United States
www.tulane.edu