Global Environmental & Occupational Health
Testing for toxins in Mariupol
UKRAINE:
Family and Children of Ukraine
Family and
Children of Ukraine is the Ukrainian component of the European Longitudinal
Study of Pregnancy and Childhood (ELSPAC). ELSPAC was initiated by the
World Health Organization, and the research protocols were developed
by the ELSPAC Coordinating Committee, which is based in the Department
of Child Health, University of Bristol, England. ELSPAC is a prospective,
geographically-based series of population studies designed to include
pregnancy and to follow the cohort of births until the age of 7 years.
Family and Children of Ukraine is administered by a binational executive
committee and is based in the Ukrainian Institute of Pediatrics, Obstetrics,
and Gynecology (IPOG), in Kyiv. Family and Children of Ukraine was initiated,
in part, with support from NIEHS (Dr. Ruth Little and Dr. Beth Gladen)
and was continued with support from the National Center for Health Statistics
(Dr. Ken Schoendorf). With the support of our ITREOH program, IPOG established
its own Institutional Research Ethics Committee to review issues associated
with human subjects research relative to this study. ITREOH funding
also provided research training for Ukrainian scientists involved in
this research and supported the data management and analysis through
the UIC Louise Hamilton Center.
Measuring weight in Mariupol
Family
and Children of Ukraine recruited 8,000 pregnant women
in 5 cities in Ukraine (Kyiv, Dniproderzhinsk, Mariupol,
Ivano-Frankivsk, and Krasny Louch) beginning in 1992.
Information about these women and their children was
collected by means of self-completion of questionnaires
and abstraction of medical records at certain points
in time. The questionnaires used in the Family and Children
of Ukraine study are based on the ELSPAC questionnaires
and are modified for use in Ukraine. They have been translated,
reverse-translated and approved by the Coordinating Committee
in Bristol. The questionnaires include:
- two antepartum
questionnaires completed by the mother;
- an antepartum questionnaire completed by the
partner;
- 6-week of infant age postpartum questionnaire;
- 6-month of age questionnaire;
- 18-month of age questionnaire;
- 3-year of age questionnaire;
- 5-year of age questionnaire; and
- 7-year of age questionnaire.
In
addition, medical records are abstracted at delivery,
6 months, 18 months, 3 years, 5 years, and 7 years, at
the time of any hospitalization, and in the event of
death or miscarriage. In addition to the main study,
local investigators initiate focus studies using these
cohorts that address specific research questions.
The children enrolled in this study are now approaching 7 years of age, and
we are beginning administration of the 7-year old questionnaire and medical
record abstraction this year. We are also in the process of analyzing the large
amounts of data that have been gathered to date. A major aim of the data analysis
is to identify risk factors for adverse pregnancy outcomes and childhood illness
which are amenable to clinical or public health interventions. For example,
in one of our focus studies, Environmental Pollution and Health Status of Children,
we observed that 3 y.o. children living in the city of Mariupol had urinary
1-OH pyrene levels (biomarkers of exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons),
that were twice as high as the most polluted cities in Japan. Mariupol has
been targeted by USEPA, USAID, and the World Bank for international support
for pollution prevention.
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