# A prospective study of critical environmental exposures in formative early life that impact lifelong health in rural US children: the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study

> **NIH NIH UG3** · DARTMOUTH COLLEGE · 2024 · $7,452,280

## Abstract

Project Summary/Abstract. In this renewal application, we will advance the success of the Environmental
Influences on Child Health Outcomes program that seeks to “enhance the health of children for generations to
come” as one of the Pregnancy and Pediatric Cohort Study Sites. Since 2009, the New Hampshire Birth
Cohort Study, a rural prospective molecular epidemiology study, has accrued data and biologic samples on
pregnant people and their children with a goal of 6,000 dyads (including 1,005 new pregnancies and 2,800
children consented into ECHO) by August 2023. Data and biospecimens are being leveraged for nearly 100
Concept Proposals (each with one or more manuscripts), including Opportunity and Infrastructure awards to
early career investigators and COVID-19 supplements, and with more in the pipeline. Already, 7,440 of our
cohort’s biospecimens have been committed to 11 ECHO-Wide laboratory analyses led by our Dartmouth team
and other investigators. This includes the ECHO Genome Wide Association Study to which most participants
are contributing DNA samples. Non-DNA biologic samples available or being shipped to the ECHO
Biorepository include urine, toenails, hair, blood, placenta, meconium, human milk, stool, and teeth. We took
part in ECHO program leadership, committees and working groups, designing and sharing protocols, and
creating instructional videos and participant feedback materials. We addressed the urgent call for health equity,
fostered workforce diversity, and prioritized public health crises, including time sensitive evaluation of SARS-
CoV-2 on our most vulnerable populations. We are committed to strengthening these efforts in the next phase.
We responded to congressional and agency stakeholders as well as health care providers and families and
plan to elevate this engagement moving forward to ensure diverse perspectives and inclusion in our cohort and
impact of our work. We will recruit 1,500 additional pregnant people, enlist their conceiving partner, enroll them
into a preconception cohort if planning another child and follow children previously accrued into the cohort and
newly born in this study phase. We will adhere to the ECHO Cohort Protocol, rely on the program’s REDCap
Central database and single IRB. We will continue to capitalize on ECHO’s unprecedented data and samples
from diverse populations across the USA, along with Dartmouth’s robust infrastructure and interdisciplinary
expertise. Specifically, we will (1) address rural health inequities by characterizing the rural exposome and its
impact on child health outcomes, (2) determine the early drivers of lower and upper airway disease and other
outcomes and the mediating role of the developing microbiome using specialized measures of exposures (e.g.,
dietary nutrient-toxicant composition) and outcomes (e.g., respiratory infections and vaccine response), and (3)
investigate the influence of inter-pregnancy adiposity and factors of the conceiving partner on child growth...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10908712
- **Project number:** 5UG3OD023275-09
- **Recipient organization:** DARTMOUTH COLLEGE
- **Principal Investigator:** MARGARET Rita KARAGAS
- **Activity code:** UG3 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $7,452,280
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-09-21 → 2025-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10908712

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10908712, A prospective study of critical environmental exposures in formative early life that impact lifelong health in rural US children: the New Hampshire Birth Cohort Study (5UG3OD023275-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10908712. Licensed CC0.

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