SPH Professor Named UIC Principal Investigator For National Children’s Study

Arden Handler, professor of community health sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, was named UIC’s principal investigator in the National Children’s Study.

The first of its kind, this ground-breaking study is designed to examine the effects of environmental influences on nearly 100,000 children from before birth to age 21. Though other countries have undertaken similar studies, the National Children’s Study is the first to concentrate its scope on American families and American diversity, recruiting participants from a wide range of racial backgrounds and locations. The study is aimed at improving the health and well-being of children across the country by studying various biological, social and chemical factors, as well as behavioral and cultural influences throughout their different phases of growth and development.

Handler, who is also director of the Maternal and Child Health program at the UIC SPH, has spent the bulk of her career working on behalf of women’s and children’s health. A strong community activist, she is one of the founding board members of the Illinois Maternal and Child Health Coalition, a Chicago-based organization dedicated to improving the health of children and families through advocacy and policy development.

Handler recently completed two studies, both with indications toward the kinds of research that will be done in the National Children’s Study: one involving the effects of welfare reform on prenatal care in low-income families, and another that examines prenatal care provided for and used by African-American women.

She is also currently working on evaluation research with local projects including Closing the Gap, a study of the quality of prenatal care in four Chicago communities; Healthy Births for Healthy Communities, an infant mortality rate reduction effort; and Centering Pregnancy, a group model of prenatal care.

Handler said she is excited that UIC will be part of a national study that will form the basis of child health management, interventions and policy for generations to come.

Universities throughout the country are participating in the study, which is led by a consortium of federal partners including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (including the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). In Cook County, study centers include UIC, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Children’s Memorial Hospital and the National Opinion Research Center.

-- Tina Daniel

Arden Handler, Dr. P.H., Professor of Community Health Sciences