Overview of the National Children's Study Vanguard Study

The National Children's Study (NCS) will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 to examine the effects of environmental influences on their health and development. The NCS will sample air, house dust, water, soil, and food during the mother's pregnancy and the child's early life, and children will be followed prospectively for health effects. The NCS will obtain biospecimens such as urine, saliva, vaginal fluids, blood, breast milk, meconium, and cord blood to analyze for biomarkers of exposures and biomarkers of effects. Contaminants of concern include heavy metals, volatile organic compounds, carbonyls, semi-volatile organic compounds, pyrethroids, disinfection byproducts (hormonally active agents), dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, and persistent organic pollutants. The ability to examine multiple environmental exposures and link them in a cause-effect relationship with multiple outcomes is the defining characteristic of the Study. After 8 years of intensive research and planning, the National Children's Study launched recruitment and the Vanguard cohort phase of the Study in 2009. The Vanguard Study will focus entirely on assuring the feasibility, acceptability, and determining the cost of procedures and data collections being considered for the Main Study. The Vanguard Study will evaluate: (1) alternative strategies for recruitment; (2) Study visit assessments (those events and assessments that are scheduled during Study visits); and (3) Study logistics and operations. This presentation will describe how the Vanguard Study relates to the Main Study; efforts to recruit and retain a nationally representative sample; and results of Study visit assessments during pregnancy and birth in Vanguard locations.