US child study hits buffers

摘要

Like proud new parents, US researchers had high hopes for the National Children's Study (NCS). It would track 100,000 children from birth to age 21, provide a wealth of data about environmental effects on health and yield a greater understanding of health disparities between different ethnicities and income levels. It might even reveal links between exposures and conditions such as asthma, autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which are increasingly common in children. But 14 years after planning began, with more than US$1 billion spent and 5,050 children enrolled in a pilot phase, the study still lacks the scientific grounding it would need to be fully implemented next year as scheduled, a review by the US National Research Council has found.