Community outreach and engagement strategies from the Wisconsin Study Center of the National Children's Study.

The purpose of this methods article was to describe and evaluate outreach and engagement strategies designed to initially build county-wide awareness and support for the National Children's Study (NCS or the study) and subsequently to target the segment communities where recruitment for the study occurred. Selected principles from community outreach, social marketing, and health care system and personal referral formed the foundation for the strategies. The strategies included a celebration event, community advisory board, community needs assessment, building relationships with health care providers and systems, eliciting a network of study supporters, newsletters, appearances at local young family-oriented events (health fairs, parades), presentations to local community leaders, community forums, "branding" with assistance from a women-owned local marketing firm, and mailings including an oversized, second-touch postcard.

Exploring the environmental and genetic etiologies of congenital heart defects: the Wisconsin Pediatric Cardiac Registry.

Introduction: The Wisconsin Pediatric Cardiac Registry (WPCR) collects information on infants born in the state of Wisconsin with structural congenital heart disease (CHD).

Methods: The WPCR actively ascertains CHD cases in the state of Wisconsin. Cases must be conceived and born in Wisconsin after January 1, 2000.

Modeling geographic risk of complex congenital heart defects in Eastern Wisconsin.

Background: Geographic variation may be an indicator of risk factors for birth defects. This study models the geographic distribution of three complex congenital heart defects (CHDs) in eastern Wisconsin, and evaluates effects of demographic census variables linked to geographic location.

Methods: Cases of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS), Tetralogy of Fallot (TOF) and d-Transposition of the Great Arteries (d-TGAs) born between1995 and 2004 were identified from three medical centers serving eastern Wisconsin.

Effects of a culturally tailored intervention on changes in body mass index and health-related quality of life of Latino children and their parents.

Purpose: To evaluate the effects of a multicomponent, family-based, culturally tailored intervention for overweight Latino children and their parents.

Design: One group pretest/posttest with clinic comparison group.

Setting: Community health center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

A Tablet-PC application for the individual family service plan (IFSP).

Approximately 2% of children from birth through 2 years of age were identified as having disabilities in 2000. To provide effective intervention services to each child is important. Children with disabilities from birth to 3 years of age who receive early intervention services have an Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP).

National Children's Study: environmental exposures in Waukesha County.

The National Children's Study (NCS), launched in September of 2005, will investigate the effects of environmental exposures and children's health and development. Waukesha County, Wis was selected as 1 of 7 sites to spearhead this ambitious undertaking. Residents of Waukesha County may experience different kinds of environmental exposures from water, land, and air based on where they live, work, and play.

The National Children's Study Waukesha County, Wisconsin Vanguard Center.

The National Children's Study (NCS) is a large, longterm study designed to detect environmental influences on the health and development of children. Waukesha County, Wisconsin, was selected as 1 of 7 "Vanguard Centers" currently funded to finalize and lead the implementation of the study protocol. The authors provide an overview of key design and planning processes that will be used at all NCS Vanguard locations, the specific approaches to be used in the NCS Waukesha County Vanguard Center, and information about how Wisconsin physicians and other health care professionals can become involved in working with the NCS.

The National Children's Study and the children of Wisconsin.

Prospective, multi-year epidemiologic studies such as the Framingham Heart Study and the Nurses' Health Study have proven highly effective in identifying risk factors for chronic illness and in guiding disease prevention. Now, in order to identify environmental risk factors for chronic disease in children, the US Congress authorized a National Children's Study as part of the Children's Health Act of 2000. Enrollment of a nationally representative cohort of 100,000 children will begin in 2008, with follow-up to continue through age 21.

Alcohol dehydrogenase 2*3 affects alterations in offspring facial morphology associated with maternal ethanol intake in pregnancy.

Background: Ethanol intake during pregnancy alters offspring facial morphology. However, significant variation that may be due to genetic diversity in ethanol metabolizing enzymes occurs. The alcohol dehydrogenase 1B*3 (ADH1B*3) allele is protective for offspring developmental outcome after maternal alcohol drinking in pregnancy and may explain the spectrum of facial morphology.

The Wisconsin Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Screening Project.

Problem: Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS) is preventable, under-diagnosed, and under-reported. Wisconsin rates for alcohol use and binge drinking in childbearing-age women exceed the national average. FAS prevalence in Wisconsin has not previously been systematically evaluated.

Excess birth prevalence of Hypoplastic Left Heart syndrome in eastern Wisconsin for birth cohorts 1997-1999.

Background: Hypoplastic Left Heart syndrome (HLHS) is a group of cardiac malformations involving underdevelopment of the left heart with an inability to maintain systemic circulation. Because of a clinical impression of excess HLHS prevalence, we completed a medical record review of cases born from 1997 through 1999 who were Wisconsin residents and seen at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin (CHW).

Methods: Cases were identified either in the CHW medical records database or the Division of Pediatric Cardiology database and confirmed by echocardiogram, catheterization, surgery, or autopsy.

Completeness of state administrative databases for surveillance of congenital heart disease.

Background: Tracking birth prevalence of cardiac defects is essential to determining time and space clusters, and identifying potential associated factors. Resource limitations on state birth defects surveillance programs sometimes require that databases already available be used for ascertaining such defects. This study evaluated the data quality of state administrative databases for ascertaining congenital heart defects (CHD) and specific diagnoses of CHD.

Growth of postmenarcheal girls from three ethnic groups.

Documentation of normal growth in late adolescence has been limited to a few studies using largely white participants. Annual growth rates of 668 high school girls who had already achieved menarche were determined for stature, sitting height, and knee height measured using the Knee Height Measuring Device (KHMD), an instrument with superior reliability. The sample was 61.

Longitudinal principal components analysis of patterns and predictors of growth in Guatemalan children.

Longitudinal principal components (LPC) analysis was used to assess growth patterns in children from rural Guatemala in order to determine if this methodology could provide additional information regarding correlates of growth compared to more traditionally used methods based on attained size and increments. LPC analysis reduces measures at many points in time into a few parameters. However, LPC analysis requires complete data, and many cases may be lost due to missing values.

Relationship of disease characteristics and nutritional status to patterns of growth in children with Crohn disease.

Crohn disease is one type of inflammatory bowel disease with frequent occurrence before maturity. Many children with Crohn disease experience linear growth retardation. However, the prevalence and contribution of various factors to growth failure have not been adequately investigated.

Measurement of short-term growth with a new knee height measuring device.

Information on short-term growth (growth over periods of 1 month or less) has potential use in the clinic for treatment of children with growth disorders, and knowledge about patterns of short-term growth may also contribute to an understanding of growth control mechanisms. Limitations of measurement reliability for most measurements of linear growth have generally confined us to evaluation of growth over periods 3 month or longer. This report introduces the Knee Height Measuring Device (KHMD) The Knee Height Measuring Device is available from Intersciences Development Associates, 3508 Market St.