Studying young lives may show roots of adult disease - Project to track events from womb to age 21

> Studying young lives may show roots of adult disease - Project to track events from womb to age 21

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Studying young lives may show roots of adult disease

Project to track events from womb to age 21

July 29, 2003

BY ROBERT S. BOYD
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- If your mother smoked before you were born, are you at higher risk for heart disease? If you didn't eat enough fruits and vegetables as a toddler, are you now likely to get diabetes? If your child was bullied in seventh grade, is that child prone to commit crimes?

Scientists hope to find answers to these and dozens of similar questions by tracking 100,000 subjects from the womb to age 21 and analyzing the results in a massive computer database.

The National Children's Study, as it's known, is to be the largest effort ever undertaken to determine how prenatal and very early experiences -- physical, social and environmental -- affect mental and physical health later in life.

"It may be the most important study ever funded by the U.S. government," said Kent Thornburg, a professor of medicine at Oregon Health & Science University in Portland. "A significant proportion of adult human disease is programmed from early life."

As a result, Thornburg said, the children's study "will give us the opportunity to find the roots and eventually the cures for many of the diseases."

Congress authorized the study in 2000. President George W. Bush's budget for 2004 seeks $10 million to continue planning the elaborate project. The $10-million request is part of the Health and Human Services appropriations bill; project organizers say they hope Congress will pass it by year's end. The estimated cost is $2.7 billion over 25 years, or more than $100 million a year.

If they get the money, researchers hope to start enrolling mothers-to-be -- including some women even before they are pregnant -- and gathering data in 2005 or 2006. The first, tentative findings are expected in 2008, but complete, long-term results won't be available for decades. Data collection would run through at least 2025, but the material could be harvested for research indefinitely.

Supporters say the study would help resolve two burning questions:

  • How much poor health or misbehavior in later life is due to bad genes and how much to damage from the environment?
     
  • What are the long-lasting effects of womb conditions on children? The theory that adult diseases have fetal origins is a hot topic in biology. Some scientists say they want more data before accepting the idea.

    A project as elaborate as the National Children's Study probably wouldn't have been possible even 10 years ago. It would be able to take advantage of advanced computer techniques such as data-mining, which detects subtle connections between elements in a huge jumble of information.

    The National Children's Study is to be conducted by a partnership of government agencies, universities, professional societies and private organizations. The project is headed by the National Institute for Child and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, in Bethesda, Md.
     

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