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Duplin County, North Carolina, will soon begin a new phase of the National Children’s Study (NCS), which will examine the effects of social, behavioral, biological, environmental and community factors on children’s development.

The study aims to collect information that will help prevent and treat such health problems as autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. It is funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health. The Carolina Population Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will lead the study in Duplin County.

Dr. Peter Scheidt, director of the NCS, and Dr. Ruth Brenner, program officer for the Duplin County site, will meet with the Duplin County community advisory group to discuss the study timeline and preliminary activities slated to begin in April, 2008.
 
Media representatives are invited to attend a press briefing before the community advisory group’s meeting.

Thursday, March 6, 2008, 5:30 p.m.
James Sprunt Community College, McGowan Building Board Room
133 James Sprunt Drive
Kenansville

Duplin County is one of two sites in the nation to reach this phase of the study. The community advisory group of about 20 people has worked with the UNC research team for the past two years to give guidance and recommendations about how best to field the study in the county. Lawrence Rouse, president of James Sprunt Community College, chairs the group. 

“We are so pleased that Peter and Ruth are coming to Duplin County to meet with our advisory group,” said Barbara Entwisle, UNC’s principal investigator of the study and director of the Carolina Population Center. “This meeting shows the priority that the National Children’s Study places on community involvement. Everyone on our community advisory group has contributed to the project and we have received excellent feedback regarding how to work with the county,” Entwisle said.   

Researchers hope to enroll 1,250 women in Duplin County over the next five years, or 250 women of child-bearing age each year for the next five years.

This spring, a study office will be established in Duplin County and staff will be hired from the community to work on the project. Members of the UNC team are presently working with health care professionals and local hospitals where women from the county seek prenatal care and deliver their babies to prepare for the study activities. Initial study activities in Duplin County will serve as a model for more than 100 other counties across the country that will participate in the study.

“This is a very ambitious study,” said Nancy Dole, deputy director of the Carolina Population Center and co-PI of the study. “It’s important to start with the two sentinel sites here in North Carolina and in New York so we can get the details worked out, then implement the study uniformly throughout the country. We’re excited about being a part of the initiation of this project that has the potential to improve and protect the lives and health of children.”

Altogether, the National Children’s Study will authorize 105 sites across the nation. UNC has also been awarded a contract to implement the NCS in four additional counties in North Carolina – Rockingham, Durham, Burke and Buncombe.

Researchers from the Carolina Population Center, Battelle Memorial Institute in Durham and Duke University will implement the study in Duplin County. Queens County, New York, will be the second location nationwide to begin implementation of the study this spring.

For more about the NCS: www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov and www.cpc.unc.edu/ncs .

Entwisle can be reached at (919) 966-1710 or entwisle@unc.edu;
Dole can be reached at (919) 966-2821 or nancy_dole@unc.edu.

Carolina Population Center contact: Lori Delaney, (919) 966-4562, lori_delaney@unc.edu
News Services contact: Clinton Colmenares, (919) 843-1991, clinton_colmenares@unc.edu

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