Public Health
The National Children’s Study (NICHD)
The Children’s Health Act of 20000 authorized the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) and a consortium of federal agencies to plan and conduct the National Children’s Study (NCS). Congress appropriated funds for Fiscal Years 2007 and 2008 to continue the first phase of implementation of the National Children’s Study. With these funds, the seven Vanguard Centers will begin recruitment of families into the Study; in addition, 17 additional Study Centers were awarded at the end of Fiscal Year 2007 and 12 additional Study Centers, including Maine Medical Center, were awarded at the end of Fiscal Year 2008. Recruitment for the study in Cumberland County will not start for at least two years. The current Institutional Review Board application focuses on a preparatory project using birth and fetal death certificate data obtained from the state Office of Data, Research and Vital Statistics and other existing demographic, geographic, and environmental data descriptive of Cumberland County.