Researchers are preparing to launch a study that may help them better understand Cerebral Palsy and other childhood diagnosis.
The $3.2 billion study will launch in January and spend two decades tracking the health of 100,000 U.S. children.
The National Children's Study will follow children from before birth to age 21.
During that time, researchers will examine factors behind cerebral palsy, autism, learning disabilities, birth defects, ADHD, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, obesity and other conditions.
During that time, researchers will examine factors behind cerebral palsy, autism, learning disabilities, birth defects, ADHD, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, obesity and other conditions.
According to a press release from National Institutes of Health, the study will help pinpoint early-life influences that affect later development. These include both hereditary and environmental factors.
The goal is to find new ways to treat or prevent illness.
"We anticipate that in the long term, what we learn from the study will result in a significant savings in the nation's health care costs," says Dr. Duane Alexander, who heads the NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.
Pregnant women will start signing up in January.
That's when the University of North Carolina and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York will begin the study.
27 Institutions will take part in the research.
The first data from it could be available as soon as 2013.
