Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine recently received a seven-year, $32 million contract from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to conduct a study aiming to determine how to prevent the abundance of health problems that American children face. Asthma, premature births, autism, obesity and behavior disorders are among the health conditions that will be addressed in the study.

The National Children’s Study Greater Chicago Study Center is one of 105 National Children’s Study locations nationwide. The other Chicago-area institutions participating in the study are the University of Illinois at Chicago, the University of Chicago and the National Opinion Research Center. Each of these institutions will begin enrolling 4,000 Chicago-area pregnant women and women who may become pregnant in the study this month. Overall, more than 100,000 children will be included in the national study.

Study administrators will follow these women, their children and the rest of their families from before birth until age 21, observing what effect family history and physical and social environments have on their health.

Jane Holl, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics and preventive medicine at Feinberg and attending physician at Children’s Memorial Hospital, said this is the largest and longest study of this kind that has ever been conducted, and it is the only way to pinpoint how to prevent childhood health problems.