Groundbreaking children’s health study important to Pinal County

Did you know that Pinal County has been selected as one of only 105 counties in the U.S. to participate in a major benchmark evaluation of our children’s health?

The National Children’s Study was authorized by Congress in 2000 and will follow some 100,000 children across the country from before birth to age 21 years. This ambitious study will provide researchers with empirical data on how children’s environment and genetics affect their health and development.  The environmental data will include chemical, physical, biological, behavioral, social, and cultural environments.
 
We are the very first county in Arizona to get underway and approximately 1,000 Pinal children will be assessed and monitored. In order to ensure a representative sample of children and environments, specific neighborhoods across the county have been identified and letters of invitation will be sent to women in these neighborhoods by study personnel.

Eligible candidates must be between the ages of 18-49, pregnant or planning to be pregnant in the next three to five years. The study, under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health and in partnership with the University of Arizona, will be the largest and most ambitious study of children’s health ever to be done in the United States.
 
The data is gathered under very strict privacy protocols in order to protect the personal information of the parent and child. As you might imagine, this long-range systematic evaluation of children and their health will provide us as a nation and a culture with incalculable data that will in turn help us all to improve our children’s quality of lives and their ability to lead healthy, productive lives.

One of the additional, short-term benefits to our county is that the 20 or so Study employees will be living, earning, and spending in Pinal County as a part of our Pinal community for the next two decades.  For more information, contact Dr. Cathy Martinez  at  520-836-5221 or [email protected].

On another matter, I am traveling to Washington, D.C. early this month as a part of the National Association of Counties annual legislative conference. The primary purpose of the meeting, of course, is to meet with members of Arizona’s delegation and make sure that they are aware of, and will support our requests for federal funding for such projects as flood control planning and widening/expanding the Hunt Highway.

Appointments have also been made with federal agencies in conjunction with these and other issues of concern. I fully expect that I will be able to make significant inroads on these and other issues. As we work to be sure that our county isn’t ignored by the federal government and that we receive our fair share of federal funding, these face-to-face meetings are invaluable.
 
David Snider is Pinal County District 3 supervisor.

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