October 16, 2008 - In January 2009 the National Children’s Study, or NCS, will start recruiting 100,000 mothers-to-be for the largest study of U.S. children ever with the goal of examining how the environment and other factors affect children’s health. Specifically, the study focuses on how certain conditions such as autism, asthma, learning disabilities, and obesity develop. The study plans to examine everything from the mother’s diet during pregnancy to the effects of chemicals used in plastics, and will follow each child until he or she reaches 21 years of age.

During the initial pilot phase recruiting will only take place in North Carolina and New York, but nationwide enrollment is set to start in summer 2010. It is likely that scientists will begin to receive initial data as early as 2012.

In May of this year, the National Research Council and Institute of Medicine released a report titled The National Children's Study Research Plan: A Review, which evaluated the study’s research plan and assessed its scientific rigor. The report concluded that if NCS is conducted as proposed, the database derived from the study should be valuable, although there are important weaknesses and shortcomings in plan that diminish the study’s value The NCS study staff have responded positively to many of the report’s recommendations.

• The National Children's Study Research Plan: A Review

• National Children’s Study Web Site