Suggestion Box

As President Obama said on his Thanksgiving address last week, I hope you all had a wonderful holiday “eating great food, watching a little football, and reflecting on how truly lucky we are.”

Here at the National Children’s Study, we are thankful for the opportunity to contribute to such a significant undertaking as improving the health of all children. We would be unable to do that if we did not have the support of our amazing community partners, who week by week over the past twelve months continue displaying our posters and brochures at their locations, inviting us to community events, and referring people to call our number if they are interested in participating.

As our VideoVoice project is coming to an end, we asked our neighborhood ambassadors for their thoughts and suggestions as the National Children’s Study moves forward in Cook County. Here is what Maria had to say:

“Some of the things that I can recommend are basically the same things that people recommended me or the same concerns they had about it. Among them is the expansion of the selected communities, perhaps to include more communities in order to admit a larger number of children.

Perhaps, contemplate the possibility of having women who become pregnant prior to eighteen years of age because that is a reality in our community. There are many pregnant women under eighteen, [whom] regrettably could be left out of this program having the opportunity to study the effects precisely which that premature pregnancy could have on the baby throughout his life.

Another would be to emphasize more our program through television, radio, mass media, utilize the media so that people know about us even more. Those are the main things that I would suggest the Study.

Of course, to continue working, to persist bringing information to the families. Perhaps one more thing that could work quite well is to bring specific information about topics of interest to our community. For example, health topics, mental health topics… In our Latino community, one of the main concerns is how the environment affects the emotional health of its inhabitants.”

NCS in the Community

On a cold Midwestern day, we traveled to the southwest suburbs of Cook County to interview one of our community partners. Lori Chesna, Executive Director of the Southwest Special Recreation Association, has been a strong supporter on the National Children’s Study Greater Chicago Study Center since the first time we met her almost nine months ago. Lori spoke to us about her interest in the NCS not only on a professional level, as a community leader at an agency that works with families of children with special needs, but also on a personal level as a mother of four.

Lori sees the opportunity to participate in the National Children’s Study as a way for moms and dads to contribute to society. “I would love to be a part of it,” Lori said when asked if she would take part in the Study. “So I encourage anybody to really be involved in a program like this, although it might not affect you, you are helping impact generations to come.” Lori goes on to say how other community organizations should get involved in the NCS and tell families whom they work with to find out if they are eligible to participate.

In this week’s post, one of our neighborhood ambassadors and our project coordinator talk about the impact of the National Children’s Study in the community. Our neighborhood ambassadors have had a fantastic experience in the community not only promoting the Study but also interviewing people for our VideoVoice project. We are really excited for all the footage that has been gathered and cannot wait to put together the final video. In the meantime, we leave you with some initial recommendations and thoughts for the future of the project:

Prenatal Care

In this week’s post, one of our neighborhood ambassadors brings up the important issue of prenatal care and how the National Children’s Study (NCS) is focusing on this significant stage of a woman’s pregnancy:

If you listened closely, however, Rose also mentions how the NCS is going to “make mothers more aware of things that they weren’t aware before.” As in any study, a possible research bias may occur if study participants change their behavior simply because they are being studied. This is called the “Hawthorne Effect,” which bears the name of the Hawthorne Works factory outside of Chicago.

Now let’s take a closer look at prenatal care:

In its most basic definition, prenatal care is the health care that a doctor or clinic gives to a pregnant woman. The American Academy ofFamily Physicians and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend prenatal care visits take place at least:

• Once every four weeks during the first six months of being pregnant
• Once every two weeks during the seventh and eight months of being pregnant
• Once every week during the last month of being pregnant
• Or more often as directed by the doctor

In the state of Illinois 86 percent of mothers begin prenatal care in the first trimester. However, that number varies widely by race/ethnicity where Black and Latina mothers have lower rates than White moms. Even though the proportion of mothers receiving early prenatal care is at a record high in our increasingly diverse society, disparities in care and outcomes remain among racial and ethnic groups, presenting a host of challenges for many families. In addition, there are differences in the women’s stage of pregnancy when seeking prenatal care, as well as dissimilarities in the type of providers sought at various stages of pregnancy. Some women may not seek care until very close to birth, and the provider may be a hospital. The National Children’s Study will take all of these characteristics into account to seek a better understanding of important questions such as:

• Can good nutrition help overcome potential risks from other environmental exposures that can affect the fetus?
• How does infection at various times over the course of pregnancy impact the fetus? 
• How are exposures to environmental toxicants, stress, prenatal nutrition, and other factors, such as genes, linked to a child’s risk of autism, ADHD, and other developmental disorders?

Results from this effort can help revise standards of care for prenatal screening, as well as inform guidelines for the management of certain conditions during pregnancy, such as diabetes. While Rose was right to point out how the NCS may make participants aware of certain things, it is highly unlikely that a Hawthorne-type effect might be at play in terms of prenatal care.

Questions, Questions, Questions

As part of the local NCS team, we participate in community events such as health fairs, Baby expos, Parent Cafes, block parties, among many others, and we try to provide people with enough information about the National Children’s Study, so they can consider joining our efforts. But people always have questions, and that is one of the reasons why we created this blog to provide yet another way for you to get in contact with us and help answer those questions.

If you stopped by our table at a recent event in your community and took a brochure home with you, we bet that after taking a few minutes to read it over, now you have some questions. You can always call, text or visit the website listed on the back the brochure. In addition, you can visit our Facebook page and post on our wall, send us a Tweet or even post a comment below. No matter which way you decide to contact us, one of our friendly community outreach folks will get back to you.

This past week, NCS Staff sat down with the neighborhood ambassadors to discuss different ways in which they approach people and have conversations about the NCS. Maria described to us a conversation she had with a pregnant mother at a Spooktacular event at the community center in her neighborhood.

“A pregnant woman came up to my NCS table, picked up a flier, read it and then paced around for five minutes. After finishing a conversation with another woman, I asked her if she had ever heard of the NCS and she said she had and then posed a variety of questions because she said she was thinking about participating. I found out her name was Monica*, and she first asked if she would have to take her child to a clinic or have additional doctor visits. I said no, the NCS is an observational study, and told Monica that means there are no treatments, medications or interventions and that the study will not interfere with how her family makes any decisions about their child’s life, including healthcare.

Monica then said that she heard that we would come to her house and that she was worried about this. I told her that our schedulers would work with her in finding times that work best with her schedule and that, for each Study visit or interview, we would explain what information would be collected beforehand. In addition, I told Monica that home visits become less frequent as her child gets older.

Monica then said that she was happy that the NCS would call her ahead of time to schedule a home visit but that she still did not really understand what it would mean to participate in the NCS. I told her that as a study participant, she will be asked to answer surveys or interviews over the phone, by mail, in-person or online a few times a year. She can also at any time opt out of the NCS and rejoin at a later time, but I made sure to let Monica know that her participation would help her children’s children live healthier lives in the future.”

We have been in contact with hundreds of parents from across Cook County, and many of them have decided to join us. If you are considering taking part in the Study, we are here to help. So, go ahead, leave us a comment below and take the first step in improving the lives of generations to come.

* Not her real name.

Q&A on dairy free diets (part 2)

We like the part where it says "Many illnesses and diseases can be decreased if we just knew what was going on inside our bodies." That is why we are conducting the National Children's Study. The NCS will look at the environments babies are exposed to before, during and after they are born. For a scientific description of the Study go here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3095263/?tool=pubmed Thank you Kate for sharing this.

Q&A on dairy free diets (part 2)