News
Release
Friday, October 3, 2008
CHAPEL HILL - Cumberland
County,
N.C. has been selected to be part of
the National
Children's Study, a multi-million dollar, decades-long project which
focuses on
the health and well-being of children throughout the United States.
The
National Children's Study researches the effects
of social, behavioral, biological, community, and environmental factors
on
human health and development. It is the largest longitudinal study of
its kind
ever to be conducted in the United States.
The
project will ultimately track 100,000 children in the United States
from before birth through
the age of 21 to explore causes of health problems such as obesity,
injuries,
heart disease, asthma and developmental delays. A total of 105 counties
throughout the United
States
eventually will be part of the study.
Juanita
Pilgrim, Deputy County Manager of Cumberland County, indicates "this
study will
help us look at where we are now with children's health and, as a
result of the
study, the community will be able to identify issues and establish
programs
that will ultimately lead to an improved quality of life for all
children."
The
Carolina Population
Center at the University
of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill will
direct the work in Cumberland
County. Four other
counties in North Carolina are
already part of
the study: Duplin County in the southeastern part of the
state, Rockingham County
and Durham County
in central North Carolina and Burke County
which is in the western part of the state. The Carolina Population
Center leads the
study in
these counties as well, under the direction of Barbara Entwisle, Ph.D.,
director of the center and Kenan Professor of Sociology at UNC.
Project partners include Duke
University and
Battelle
Memorial Institute. The lead researchers for Cumberland
County are Margarita Mooney, Ph.D., assistant
professor of sociology at the University
of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill and a fellow at the Carolina Population
Center,
and Lynne Messer, Ph.D., a
researcher in the Health Inequalities Program of the Center for Health
Policy
at the Duke Global Health Institute.
"This
landmark study has the potential for
benefiting children and their families in Cumberland
County and across the United States. We will be looking at a wide variety of
factors that may affect children's health, and through this work, we
hope all
children will be healthier throughout their lives," said Mooney.
Outreach
to community members is an important aspect of the study and will be
the focus
of the initial steps of the study in Cumberland County.
Community members
in the health, education, faith, and government sectors
will be involved, including those
in the military and those who are not in the military. Messer
said, "Cumberland County represents a diverse community and it
is
critical that the National Children's Study have a broad representation
of America's
children. We're looking forward to working
with many members of the Cumberland
County community
on this
important study."
The
National Children's Study is a
collaboration of several federal agencies: The National Institutes of
Health,
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S.
Environmental
Protection Agency.
For
more about the National Children's
Study Project: http://www.cpc.unc.edu/ncs or http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov
NOTE:
Juanita Pilgrim can be reached at (910) 678-7724 or jpilgrim@co.cumberland.nc.us
Margarita Mooney can be
reached at
(919) 966-0265 or (919) 962-4524 or margarita7@unc.edu
Lynne Messer can be reached
at (919)
681-4442 or lynne.messer@duke.edu
Carolina Population Center contact: Lori Delaney, (919) 966-4562,
lori_delaney@unc.edu
