Child Health and Development Studies

This study, sponsored by the National Institute of Child Health and Development, is a new collaboration between CHDS investigators and Columbia University. The focus of this project is to understand how and when racial and socioeconomic disparities in health emerge over the life course. It will provide critical information for understanding why disparities exist and how they might be addressed.

This collaborative project between Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) investigators and Columbia University, Harvard University, the University of California, Davis, and the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research examines how prenatal and childhood factors influence the risk for diabetes, heart disease, breast cancer and brain function in adulthood. This project launched a new era of research at the CHDS focused on adult health of CHDS "children."

The purpose of this study by the Child Health and Development Studies, Kaiser Permanente and Columbia University is to learn more about the effects of the prenatal period and early childhood on women's adult health, particularly the health of their breasts. It examines whether mammographic density (which may be linked to later risk of breast cancer) is related to prenatal or early childhood factors.

This study tests the idea that prenatal exposure to environmental chemicals increases the risk of breast cancer. Many of these compounds are known to affect fertility, birth outcomes and immune function and are thus suspected causes of or contributors to breast cancer. However, no human study has been able to measure exposure in the womb, a time of vulnerability for the developing fetus.

PHI serves as a subcontractor to Temple University's National Institutes of Health award for Fetal Exposure to Maternal Stress and Inflammation: Effects on Neurodevelopment. The scope of work includes identifying available serum samples, assisting investigators with correspondence and approvals, batching the serum, receiving results and appending them to the data files for the project.

Tests the hypothesis that in utero exposure to organochlorine compounds alters breast density in women measured at 40-44 years of age. High breast density is associated with increased risk of breast cancer.

The project's general aims are: 1) to maintain the accuracy of the Child Health and Development Studies (CHDS) files for name and addresses, mortality and occurrences of malignancies; 2) to manage the CHDS serum collection; and 3) to facilitate the biomedical and psychosocial studies through dissemination of data to qualified researchers without violating participant confidentiality.

This study investigates the role of prenatal determinants of schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorder.The study builds on and extends two prior investigations: the original Child Health and Development Study and the Prenatal Determinants of Schizophrenia Study, This project is a collaboration with Kaiser Foundation Research Institute.

This study examines the relationship between early developmental insults and risk of adult bipolar affective disorder. Investigators aim to better understand early developmental risk factors for bipolar disorder, and assess whether these factors are specific to schizophrenia. This project is a collaboration with the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene.

This is a joint project between the Child Health and Development Studies, Kaiser Permanente and Columbia University. It examines the effects of prenatal exposure to pesticides and men's fertility. Prenatal exposure to pesticides could occur if a man's mother was exposed to pesticides before or during her pregnancy. Some pesticides are stored for long periods in body tissues and might affect the developing reproductive system of a fetus.

This study is to assess whether exposure to metabolites of endocrine disrupting compounds during pregnancy is associated with 1) adverse development in the offspring at birth, childhood and adolescence and 2) mild deficiencies in the maternal thyroid function, as well as whether adverse developmental findings, if any, are attributed in part to deficiencies in exposure to maternal thyroid hormone in utero. This project is a collaboration with Columbia University.