8 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
The aim of our study is to assess the effect of daily consumption of yogurt containing probiotic bacteria BB12 on the health and growth of healthy children 12-48 months of age in out of home child care.
A 6-month virtual two-armed randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial. Participants will take NuBest Tall Growth Protein Powder or a placebo daily. Parents will complete questionnaires at baseline and monthly, and children will undergo cognitive assessments and height/weight measurements at specified intervals.
The objective of this study is to examine how infant egg consumption (age of introduction and frequency of intake) influences physical growth, obesity, cardio-metabolic health, risk of food allergy, and cognition development in mid-childhood and adolescence.
Patterns of illness among children in the United States and other industrially developed nations have changed substantially during the past 100 years. Before and during the first half of the previous century, infectious diseases were the primary threat to children s health. In contrast, the major illnesses and disorders that impair health, growth, and development today are chronic conditions stemming from the complex interaction of environmental exposures and inherent genetic factors. The Children s Health Act of 2000 directed the National Institute of Child Health and Development to conduct a national longitudinal study of environmental influences on children s health in the United States. The act specified that the study extend from the prenatal period to adulthood and investigate the short-term and long-term influences of physical, chemical, biological, and psychosocial environmental exposures on children s health and development, including behavioral, emotional, and educational outcomes in addition to physical health. The National Children s Study (NCS) is an observational longitudinal study that will enroll and follow a nationally representative sample of approximately 100,000 U.S.-born children from before birth through their 21st birthday. The study will screen all households within selected areas of 105 locations (primarily counties). The major types of analysis of NCS data will include longitudinal exposure-outcome analysis, identification of causal pathways, analysis of neighborhood effects, evaluation of temporal effects within longitudinal data analysis of data from case-control data, and analysis of genomic data. Women in their first trimester of pregnancy will be invited to participate in the pre-pregnancy portion of the NCS. Women who are not pregnant but have a high probability of becoming pregnant will be asked to participate in the early pregnancy portion of the NCS. All other eligible women will be asked if the study can contact them periodically to assess their pregnancy status. They also will be asked to contact the NCS should they become pregnant. Women identified as pregnant within 4 years after initial screening will be invited to enroll in the NCS. The following information will be gathered: Mother s data and information * Questionnaire data interviewed and self-administered (e.g., demographics; current pregnancy history; reproductive history; medical conditions; health behaviors; doctor visits; medicines and supplements; housing characteristics; pesticides, product use; occupation, hobbies; depression, stress; social support; diet; time and activity) * Physical measures and clinical data (e.g., blood pressure, sonograms, height, weight, body measurements) * Biologic specimens (e.g., blood, urine, hair, saliva) * Environmental samples during home visits (e.g., dust, air, water) * Medical record abstraction Infant s data and information at birth * Cord blood and tissue samples of the placenta and umbilical cord * Standardized neurobehavioral exam * Physical measures and clinical data (e.g., length; weight; circumferences of head, arm, abdomen, thigh) * Meconium samples * Medical diagnoses and treatment by report * Selected Medical record abstraction
The DINE study will test the hypothesis that potentially avoidable NICU-based exposures contribute to the neuro-cognitive and somatic impairments prevalent among NICU graduates. This hypothesis is drawn from the documented impact of phthalate exposure on early development in term-born children, and the acknowledged presence of these toxic chemicals in the NICU. Third trimester in utero exposure to phthalates have been linked to poorer childhood performance in cognition, motor function, attention, hyperactivity and social behavior. Phthalate exposure is also associated with altered onset of puberty and asthma. The multi-site cohort and approach will clarify the role of NICU-based phthalate exposure on high-prevalence clinical outcomes.
Exposure and health study of pesticide and allergen exposures to pregnant women and children. Intervention study is planned after assessment is completed.
Being at or above the 50th percentile body mass index (BMI) for age and gender in children with cystic fibrosis (CF) is associated with better lung functioning as measured by FEV1, yet diet is one of the least adhered to components of the CF treatment regimen. Investigators at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center (CCHMC) have developed an efficacious behavioral plus nutrition education program (Be In Charge) that improves adherence to dietary recommendations, and promotes weight gain in children with CF. To make Be In Charge (BIC) widely available to families of children with CF ages 3 to 10 years, the investigators translated the face-to-face intervention into a 10-week, web-based intervention (BeInCharge.org). The investigators tested it in a pilot study and the results were promising. In the first phase of the current study, the investigators worked with a team of clinicians, parents and technology developers to extend the usability and functionality of the web intervention, enable parent-clinician collaboration, and support concurrent use across multiple clinical sites. The long term goal of this research is to make BeInCharge.org available through CF Centers across the country to patients that would benefit in order to improve dietary adherence. The current phase of this protocol is a prospective, multicenter, nonrandomized study enrolling up to 150 parents of children with CF. Participants will complete the Be In Charge program outside of CF clinic on their own time. CF Center clinicians will be able to follow the participant's progress via the Be In Charge clinician dashboard. CF center clinicians will be asked to support participating families in completing the program as clinically appropriate. The primary study objective is to: 1. Demonstrate preliminary effectiveness on weight and calorie intake outcomes when the Be In Charge program is integrated into clinical care with implementation support for care teams. The secondary study objectives are to: 1. Develop a well-defined, tested set of implementation strategies consolidated into a change package and an optimized technology platform that will support a dissemination trial for spreading the Be In Charge program across CF Centers. 2. Demonstrate that it is feasible and acceptable to use the Be In Charge program in clinical care and with fidelity to intervention parameters. 3. Demonstrate sustainability of the Be In Charge program through effective use by participants and clinicians.
Inadequate feeding of infants and toddlers impairs physical and cognitive development and is a major contributor to early childhood infectious disease illnesses and preventable mortality. Optimal feeding has two broad components: Exclusive breast feeding (EBF) for the first-6 months followed by continued breast feeding accompanied by complementary foods (CF) that is adequate in quantity and quality. While EBF is theoretically straightforward, CF is more complex. This is because CF is typically limited mainly or entirely to plant-based foods in developing countries worldwide. Dependence on adequate, affordable locally-produced foods for complete CF requires an inexpensive, regular source of meat especially to provide 'problem' micronutrients, notably, but not only, zinc and bioavailable iron. While the use of micronutrient-fortified CF and of supplements, including SprinklesTM, is spreading, their efficacy largely remains uncertain as does their availability, particularly on a sustainable, affordable basis Achievement of the widespread regular use of meat as a CF requires: (1) adequate local production of affordable small scavenging/foraging animals in poor rural and, where feasible, periurban communities worldwide; (2) effective communication for behavioral change/education so that young children, starting at age 6 months (when meat is readily accepted by infants), receive priority in the use of this meat. Solid scientific evidence of the value of international/national programs to achieve this goal is essential to provide the basis and incentive for major international and national programs to promote the feeding of meat as an early and regular CF. The acquisition of such evidence is the goal of this study The intervention to be evaluated is meat fed daily as a complementary food from age 6-18 months. Thirty infants-toddlers in each of 60 rural communities (total of 1,800 subjects) will participate. In a cluster design, twenty communities (test) will be randomized to receive meat,twenty communities (control) will receive a plant recipe providing the same amount of calories, twenty communities (fortified cereal) will receive a commercially available fortified cereal providing the same amount of calories. This project will be located in rural China in a county where high quality collaboration is already established, and where we have recently demonstrated inadequate bioavailable zinc intake and zinc deficiency in toddlers. We have also found a high (30%) incidence of stunting, now widely used as an indirect indicator of populations with zinc deficiency. Other advantages of this location include the willingness of doctors located in each rural community to provide the test or control meal 7 days per week in their homes and the absence of any access to supplements / fortified products which could complicate interpretation of data. The young children in the test communities will receive certified safe lean pork 7 days per wk. Starting with a very small quantity at 6 months, the quantity of lean pork will be increased as infants are ready to take more up to a plateau of 2 oz/d. No subsequent increases are planned because neither zinc nor iron requirements increase from 6-11 months to 12-18 months. Lean pork will be used because pigs are ubiquitous in China and can be maintained cheaply by scavenging/foraging on waste materials adjacent to human habitation. Test and control clusters will also receive nutrition education to achieve maximal diversification of locally available affordable foods. Longitudinal outcome measures include indices of physical growth, especially length; infectious disease incidence and prevalence; cognitive development; zinc and iron intake and biomarkers for these and other micronutrients. Zinc absorption will be measured. Data will flow daily from communities to the district hospital in Xi-Chou, weekly to the data manager in Shanghai and 3-monthly to the Data Monitoring Safety Board (DSMB) and to the University of Colorado research group.