Braun/Boyle: Developmental Exposure to PFAS and Childhood/Adolescent Obesity and Cardiometabolic Risk Discovery Summary Key Takeaways: PFAS are long-lasting chemicals found in some consumer products—like certain types of packaging and cookware—that can contaminate food, water, and air. Virtually all Americans have detectable levels of these substances in their blood with over 100 million Americans having levels […]

Julie Herbstman: Understanding Changes in Environmental Exposures Over Time in ECHO and Impacts on Children's Health Discovery Summary Key Takeaways: Longitudinal studies, like those at the Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health (CCCEH), can look at exposures over time, which can be used to identify new research areas, inform new policies aimed at reducing these […]

Andreas Neophytou: Bridging Differences Across Cohorts in the Relationship Between Prenatal Secondhand Smoke Exposure and Birth Weight: Transportability of Effect Estimates in the ECHO Consortium Discovery Summary Key Takeaways: The transportability of effects framework is a method researchers can use to determine what research questions can be answered using a given dataset or technique. A […]

Katherine Sauder: Supporting Healthy Children by Supporting Healthy Pregnancies: A Prebirth Nutrition Perspective Discovery Summary Key Takeaways: In recent years, there has been a rise in obesity and type 2 diabetes cases among children at increasingly younger ages, indicating that factors during early infancy - and even during pregnancy and pre-conception - may play a […]

Annemarie Stroustrup: Hospital-based Phthalate Exposure and Chronic Lung Disease of Prematurity Key Takeaways: Preterm infants are at an increased risk for a variety of adverse health outcomes, but these outcomes cannot be consistently predicted by factors like gestational age or birth weight. Phthalates are found in many of the medical devices and products used in […]

Nicole Bush: Social Exposures and Intergenerational Health: Maternal Exposure to Stress and Children’s Development Key Takeaways: Childhood adversity and pregnancy stress can have lasting effects on children’s health and wellbeing. New research suggests intergenerational effects of maternal stress on child health outcomes and identified buffers in the child’s environment that may enhance their resilience to […]

Claudia Lugo-Candelas: Perinatal Sleep Health and Offspring Neurodevelopment Key Takeaways: Many pregnant people struggle with disrupted sleep and assume that it is a normal part of pregnancy, but there are interventions that can help pregnant people sleep better. Prior research demonstrates a relationship between prenatal sleep and birth outcomes, and new data suggests prenatal sleep […]

Thomas G. O'Connor: Prenatal Origins of Child Neurodevelopmental Outcomes: From Exposures to Mechanisms Key Takeaways: Many common exposures during pregnancy have been linked with neurodevelopmental outcomes in children. It’s important to expand the evaluation of prenatal exposures beyond traditional chemical exposures (e.g., lead, tobacco) to include the effects of stress, mood disorders, and illness on […]

Alison E. Hipwell: What Can the Preconception Period Tell Us About Maternal and Child Health? Key Takeaways: Previous research shows that maternal stress and distress during pregnancy can be linked to infant and child health outcomes, but researchers need more specific information about this relationship to design effective mental health screening and intervention strategies. Studies […]

Aris: Neighborhood Opportunities and Disparities in Child health Outcomes Smith: Lung Function Measured by Oscillometry in the Healthy Start and PETALS Cohorts Key Takeaways: Izzuddin M. Aris, PhD (Harvard Medical School) Neighborhood Opportunities and Disparities in Child Health Outcomes Many studies that examine disparities in child health outcomes focus on individual socioeconomic factors that contribute […]

Liang: Effects of prenatal exposure to Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substance (PFAS) exposure on maternal and newborn metabolome and fetal growth: the PFAS Exposures And Child Health (PEACH) Study. Lewis: DNA methylation of myelinating genes measured in peripheral samples predicts brain white matter volume in a healthy pediatric cohort Key Takeaways: Donghai Liang, PhD, MPH (Emory University) […]

Dr. Matthew Gillman: Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) A Nationwide Resource for Child Health Research Speakers: Matthew W. Gillman, MD, SM National Institutes of Health Director, Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO) Program         Key Takeaways: Founded in 2016, the ECHO Program has brought together over 100,000 participants and […]

Drs. Young and Devlin: Opportunities to ACT NOW for Infants with Neonatal Opioid Withdrawal Syndrome Key Takeaways:  The opioid crisis has increased the number of infants who are exposed to opioids during pregnancy. Opioid-exposed newborns may develop symptoms of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome (NOWS), which includes tremors, excessive crying and irritability, and problems with sleeping […]