Departments of Epidemiology & Biostatistics, and Pediatrics & Human Development, Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine, East Lansing, Michigan.
Departments of Psychiatry & Obstetrics & Gynecology, Columbia University Medical Center, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, New York, USA.
Curr Opin Pediatr. 2018 Apr;30(2):292-296. doi: 10.1097/MOP.0000000000000596.
The current review addresses the importance of the prospective cohort design in large, unselected populations starting early in life for understanding the origins of childhood health disorders.
Cohort studies originating in healthy populations have contributed to great advances in health, especially in cardiovascular diseases, but have only recently been applied systematically to study the origins of childhood disorders. Several large population-based pregnancy and/or birth cohorts have been developed in different parts of the world, and these are beginning to contribute to better understanding of the underlying causes of rare but important childhood disorders, such as autism. The environmental influences on child health outcomes (ECHO) Program is distinct in leveraging and building upon 84 existing cohorts to prospectively investigate the role of early-life exposures and underlying biological mechanisms in childhood health and disease, specifically perinatal conditions, obesity, neurodevelopmental disorders, asthma and related pulmonary disorders as well as optimum child health. ECHO is expected to comprise approximately 50 000 children. It is the first US study of this size and scope since the US Collaborative Perinatal Project of 1959-1966.
The ECHO project represents a new approach to cohort studies in childhood, efficiently making use of extant cohorts while adding new data collection elements that should permit novel insights into the underlying causes of several important pediatric conditions.
目的综述：本综述探讨了前瞻性队列设计在大型、未经选择的人群中从生命早期开始的重要性，以了解儿童健康障碍的起源。
最新发现：起源于健康人群的队列研究为健康，尤其是心血管疾病方面的进展做出了巨大贡献，但直到最近才被系统地应用于研究儿童疾病的起源。世界上不同地区已经开发了几个基于人群的大型妊娠和/或出生队列，这些队列开始有助于更好地了解自闭症等罕见但重要的儿童疾病的潜在原因。环境对儿童健康结果的影响（ECHO）计划的独特之处在于利用和建立在 84 个现有队列的基础上，前瞻性地研究生命早期暴露和潜在生物学机制在儿童健康和疾病中的作用，特别是围产期状况、肥胖、神经发育障碍、哮喘和相关肺部疾病以及最佳儿童健康。ECHO 预计将包括大约 50000 名儿童。这是自 1959-1966 年美国合作围产期项目以来，美国首次进行如此规模和范围的研究。
总结：ECHO 项目代表了儿童队列研究的一种新方法，有效地利用了现有队列，同时增加了新的数据收集元素，应该能够深入了解几种重要儿科疾病的潜在原因。
