Download Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute receives NIH grant to study

For Immediate Release
September27, 2016
Contact: Mary Wallan
(617) 509-2419
[email protected]
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute receives NIH grant to study prevention of childhood obesity and
asthma
NIH ECHO initiative to examine environmental influences on child health
Wellesley, MA – The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute has been awarded a grant for a study to
identify environmental and behavioral targets for preventing asthma and obesity in children. The study
is part of the National Institutes of Health’s Environmental influences on Child Health Outcomes (ECHO)
initiative. The agency just announced fiscal year 2016 awards to launch the seven-year research effort.
The ECHO program will investigate how exposure to a range of environmental factors in early
development – from conception through early childhood – influences the health of children and
adolescents.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute will conduct its obesity and asthma prevention study using the
Project Viva cohort of Boston-area women and their children. Project Viva investigators have followed
mothers since early pregnancy and their children from birth through early teen years. Using state-of-the
art statistical methods, the team will address early environmental exposures that influence obesity,
asthma and other health issues. They will also identify effective interventions from the individual level
on up to national policies to support children’s health.
NIH’s ECHO initiative research will focus on factors that may influence health outcomes around the time
of birth as well as into later childhood and adolescence, including upper and lower airway health and
development, obesity, and brain and nervous system development. “Every baby should have the best
opportunity to remain healthy and thrive throughout childhood,” said NIH Director Francis S. Collins,
MD, PhD. “ECHO will help us better understand the factors that contribute to optimal health in
children.”
“We are pleased to be a part of this important research on child health,” says Emily Oken, MD, MPH,
and a researcher at the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute, who along with Ken Kleinman ScD, of the
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, is a principal
investigator for the project. “We anticipate that we will make valuable contributions to childhood
asthma and obesity prevention through further analysis of Project Viva data.”
The NIH announcement of ECHO awards can be found at: https://www.nih.gov/news-events/newsreleases/nih-awards-more-150-million-research-environmental-influences-child-health
About Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine
The Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute's Department of Population Medicine is a unique collaboration
between Harvard Pilgrim Health Care and Harvard Medical School. Created in 1993, it is the only
appointing medical school department in the United States based in a health plan. The Institute focuses
on improving health care delivery and population health through innovative research and teaching.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH)
NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and
supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments,
and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit
www.nih.gov.
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