Children's Study Needs Pilot Testing, Panel Finds

摘要

An expert panel last week urged that several changes be made in a controversial $2.7 billion health study of 100,000 U.S. children before the first pregnant mothers are enrolled in September. The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development says it is responding to some of the 24 suggestions, but others would be too expensive. Mandated by the U.S. Congress in 2000, the National Children's Study (NCS) will follow children from before birth to age 21 and explore how environmental factors, including pollution and television, influence disease and normal development. The study "has had a long and difficult gestation," notes the report from the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine.