WHAT IS THE CHILD STUDY?

The Canadian Healthy Infant Longitudinal Development (CHILD) Study is a multicentre, multidisciplinary, longitudinal, population-based birth-cohort study of 5,000 children enrolled “pre-birth” and followed for five years.

Why is this research being done?

Over the past 30 years there has been an increasing concern about the effects of environment on health.  In particular, since infants spend the majority of their time indoors, there is intense interest in the impact indoor pollution has on the health of our children.  Our indoor environment has become a public health priority as growing evidence suggests that unseen environmental contaminants in our living spaces may have important effects on children’s health and development.

What is the purpose of the study?

The main purpose of this study is to determine what aspects of the environment interact with genetic factors to affect children’s health and development. An example of possible environmental health effects is the increase over the last 20 years of allergic diseases, such as environmental allergies, food and pet allergies, eczema, allergic rhinitis, and asthma.  We want to collect information about Canadian children’s health and their surroundings to five years of age in order to identify causes that may be driving these conditions. This will help to make a healthy and safer environment for future families prone to these conditions and improve the quality of life for all children.

Why is this study important?

There is evidence suggesting that children’s development is influenced by factors the child is exposed to during pregnancy and the first few years of life.  Very few studies have collected information prior to and immediately after birth.  CHILD is one of a few studies in Canada that will study children before they are born to 5 years of age.

Follow this link to a Q and A document.

 

WHO IS DIRECTING THE STUDY?

The national Principal Investigator for this study is Professor Malcolm Sears, Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St. Joseph’s Healthcare and McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

National lead investigators include:

Toronto: Dr. PJ Subbarao
Winnipeg: Dr. Allan Becker
Edmonton: Dr. Piush Mandhane
Vancouver: Dr. Stuart Turvey

Disciplines represented by the more than 40 investigators in the study include pediatric and adult respirology, neonatology, population health, epidemiology, allergy and immunology, infectious diseases, environmental assessment, geographic information systems, environmental hygiene, occupational medicine, obstetrics, pulmonary physiology and pathology, genetics, genetic epidemiology and epigenetics, nutrition, medical geography, molecular biology, psychology, air quality, toxicology, sociology, neuroimmunology, biostatistics, and bioethics

Funding for the CHILD study has been provided by the Canadian Institutes of  Health Research (CIHR) and the AllerGen Network Centres of Excellence.  

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

1. What role does the built environment play in the development of allergy and asthma?

2. Is the development of asthma dominantly related to nature (genetics) or nurture (exposures)?

3. What influences lung growth and development in infancy and early childhood?

4. Do early childhood infections decrease or increase the risk of allergy and asthma?

5. What are the important genetic risk factors?

6. How do gene-environment interactions impact allergy and asthma?

 

 

WHAT DOES THE STUDY LOOK LIKE?

CHILD will recruit 5000 women during pregnancy in 4 centres in 2009-2011. Infants will be studied at birth, at a home visit at 3 months, and at clinic visits at ages 1, 3 and 5 years (with telephone questionnaires at 6 and 9 months, 1½, 2, 2½ and 4 years).

 

 

MADE IN CANADA

We have an exciting opportunity to look at the development of Canadian children raised in a variety of Canadian households. Although other birth cohorts exist in other countries, this study will be unique to our Canadian experience.

Our research study takes into account that substantial information and research that has been produced from international cohorts are applicable to Canada. We are not looking to merely confirm that knowledge; we intend to add to the knowledge through our unique approach, including looking at "gene by environment" interactions and the early development of lung function.

Canada currently has a few cohorts that are looking at specific aspects of childhood development and it is our hope that linkage with other cohorts, provincial health and drug use records, location of residence, occupation and dietary history would yield a powerful dataset to examine multiple epidemiologic questions in a wide variety of diseases. This may eventually include chronic disorders such as adult diabetes, cancer, obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular disease, making the CHILD cohort a major national resource for current and future environmental studies.