The Navajo Birth Cohort Study — Environmental Influences on Child Health Outcomes

Helping Your Baby and Future Generations To Grow in Beauty

The primary goal of this study is to better understand the relationship between uranium exposures, birth outcomes, and children’s development on Navajo Nation. ECHO will expand the focus of the NBCS to examine many aspects of the environment including social, behavioral, chemical, and physical components, and to look at risks and protective factors on Navajo in comparison to other tribal and nontribal communities. Evaluation of environment and development will occur at four points in the baby’s first year, and then annually until age 5. For those already participating in the NBCS, additional assessments will occur annually until age 5.

Benefits of Participation

• Referral for early intervention should any concerns be identified
• Home environmental assessment will identify any serious concerns
• Early assessment and education on environmental risks to your child
• Help Navajo Nation to understand development of Navajo children to inform policies on necessary services
• Help clinical care providers, obstetricians, and pediatricians to understand any unique needs for services for Navajo children

What will you have to do?

• Deliver your baby at a participating IHS or PL-638 hospital
• Allow us to review your medical record and that of your child
• Complete surveys while you are pregnant, several times in the year following your baby’s birth, and annually after baby is 1 year old
• Provide blood and urine samples for us to determine exposures and nutritional status

NBCS ECHO will begin recruitment of new participants in summer of 2017. If you have already been a participant in the NBCS You may be contacted to determine if you are interested in continuing participation with annual assessments until age 5.

Who is eligible to participate?

Mothers originally enrolled in the NBCS who are interested in continuing with their babies to age 5 AND New participants including women

• between the ages of 14 and 45
• with a confirmed pregnancy
• who have lived on Navajo Nation for 5 years at any time
• willing to deliver at one of the participating hospitals including:
  • Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility
  • Gallup Indian Medical Center
  • Tuba City Regional Health Care Corporation

 

Please call 1-877-545-6775 for more information and to find out how you can participate.

A Cooperative Agreement between NIH (#1UG3OD023344) and the University of New Mexico Community Environmental Health Program

In Partnership with

• Navajo Nation Department of Health
• Southwest Research and Information Center
• University of New Mexico Center for Development and Disability &
• University of California, San Francisco