A MAJOR new Irish study which is to follow Irish children from birth will be one of few studies worldwide in which detailed information about the environment in the womb is available from long before a baby is born.
The aim of the Baseline study, which is the first longitudinal birth cohort study in Ireland, is to gather important information as to why some children remain healthy while others go on to develop disease.
The Department of Paediatrics at University College Cork, in collaboration with the Departments of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Food/Nutritional Science, UCC and the Department of Dermatology, Trinity College Dublin, is currently recruiting women to take part in the study.
According to researchers, the study, which is funded by the Children’s Research Centre, has the potential to change the landscape of paediatric research in Ireland.
The Baseline study is a follow-on to the worldwide Scope study which the Department of Obstetrics at UCC is currently involved in and which aims to identify risk factors for the most common complications of pregnancy.
Consultant paediatrician and senior lecturer at UCC, Dr Deirdre Murray said that babies would be monitored before and after birth with details of the mother’s health and baby’s early life environment, diet and lifestyle all recorded.
At birth, blood will be sampled from the umbilical cord and stored for future analysis in an effort to unlock the causes of some of the commonest childhood diseases.
“There is increasing evidence that what goes on in the womb has important effects, not only on a baby’s growth, but also on the lifelong health of the child,” said Dr Murray. “A newborn infant is the end result of nine months of interplay between the baby, the placenta and mother. Therefore, it is not surprising that this nutritional and hormonal environment has far-reaching effects on childhood health and adult health risk.”
Professor of paediatrics at UCC, Jonathan Hourihane, said poor growth of a baby in the womb had been repeatedly linked with adult risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
“Extremely poor growth in the womb may be associated with later learning and behavioural problems. A mother’s vitamin D status affects a baby’s bone growth and has continued effects in the child’s bone strength up to adolescence and beyond.
“We do not know the effects of early life exposure on our rapidly rising incidence of childhood allergy. It is clear, then, that to establish the underlying cause of many childhood diseases, we will need to look back to long before birth,” he said.
Children will be seen at two, six, 12 and 24 months and will receive detailed assessments of their diet, general health, growth and development.
The research team will initially focus on three main research questions: the effects of poor growth in the womb; the incidence and prevalence of food allergy and eczema in early childhood; and the incidence and effects of maternal and infant vitamin D status on the growth and health of Irish children.
Prof Hourihane said: “Although we will initially focus on these important areas, the establishment of this birth cohort will offer many opportunities for further research as the children grow older.
“It will form a unique bio-bank of information from Irish children collected from soon after their conception.”
Some 300 women have already been recruited to the Baseline study and the aim is to recruit 3,000 women over the next two years.
