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Central Illinois children part of national health study

Posted October 04, 2007 11:00 pm

Dean Olsen

About 1,000 children from Macoupin County will be enrolled in a federal study that tracks their health and development - and the environmental and genetic influences on their lives - over the next 20 years, the National Institutes of Health announced Thursday.

The youngsters from Macoupin, a county of 48,800 people, will be among 100,000 other children nationwide who will be followed as part of the National Children's Study, the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States.

Researchers hope it helps them determine the root causes of many childhood and adult diseases so strategies can be developed to prevent, treat and cure them.

St. Louis University School of Public Health has received a $26 million, five-year contract from the federal government to enroll 1,000 youngsters in Macoupin County and a similar number from St. Louis, beginning in 2009.

"Examining the kinds of questions that influence the health and well-being of children is critically important to the entire community, whether you are a parent, grandparent or researcher," said Terry Leet, a St. Louis University community-health expert who is lead investigator of the St. Louis and Macoupin County study sites.

"What we find could be a potential gold mine of data for scientists who are studying what causes diseases in children," he said.

The study, estimated to cost $3 billion over the next 25 years, would be similar in scope to the Framingham Heart Study and the Women's Health Initiative, which also investigated risk factors for major chronic diseases.

Working with St. Louis University on the project will be Springfield's Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, SIU-Edwardsville School of Nursing, Washington University School of Nursing and St. Louis Battelle Memorial Institute.

Macoupin County was chosen at random by study organizers who wanted to include children raised in rural surroundings.

The only other part of Illinois included in the study is Cook County.

About 550 babies are born to Macoupin County residents each year.

Accomplishing the study's goal of enrolling 250 children during each of the four enrollment years - representing almost half of all Macoupin births - will be a challenge, said Louise Flick, a study coordinator from SIU-Edwardsville.

If not enough Macoupin families agree to be enrolled, federal officials might decide to allow enrollment from other nearby counties or extend the enrollment period, she said.

Researchers will attempt to enroll children even before they are conceived - another challenge.

Flick said females of childbearing age will be contacted as neighborhoods are canvassed in 2008 to see whether they would be willing to participate in the study if they become pregnant.

Researchers will try to enroll about a quarter of the children's mothers before conception occurs, with the other three-quarters of children enrolled in the first three months of their mothers' pregnancies, Flick said.

Most babies born to Macoupin County mothers are delivered at Springfield's two hospitals or at Litchfield's St. Francis Hospital. Some are born at hospitals in Jacksonville, Jerseyville, Alton, Maryville and St. Louis, according to Kent Tarro, administrator of the Macoupin County Health Department.

Macoupin County's only hospital, Carlinville Area Hospital, closed its maternity ward in the 1980s, and federal officials consider the county to have a shortage of doctors, dentists and other health professionals.

SIU doctors will encourage expectant mothers to participate in the study when the doctors visit Macoupin County for health clinics and deliver babies in Springfield, according to SIU nurse-midwife Helen Moose and SIU obstetrician Dr. Victoria Nichols-Johnson.

As part of the study, researchers will collect air and water samples from the children's homes and analyze blood, urine, hair and fingernail samples.

Children also will be screened for asthma, birth defects, diabetes, obesity and developmental disorders. Researchers will attempt to track participants through age 21.

As an incentive to get involved, families will be paid $50 for each face-to-face encounter with people conducting the study officials, Flick said.

Families in the study also will be in frequent contact with public-health nurses and receive help in getting access to services for their children, she said.

Much of the money in the initial $26 million contract to St. Louis University will be used to pay data collectors for both sites. They will be hired by Battelle Institute.

Tarro said he is excited about the study because it will help his department do a better job of addressing local health needs.

He said health concerns affecting Macoupin residents include teenage pregnancies, obesity, colon and lung cancer, asthma, high rates of smoking and the family breakdowns and health effects connected with methamphetamine use.

Dean Olsen can be reached at (217) 788-1543 or dean.olsen@sj-r.com.

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