The Development and Running of an Italian Birth Cohort for an In-Depth Evaluation of Child Health Status and Health Care Utilization in the First Years of Life

Pansieri, Claudia (2021). The Development and Running of an Italian Birth Cohort for an In-Depth Evaluation of Child Health Status and Health Care Utilization in the First Years of Life. MPhil thesis The Open University.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21954/ou.ro.00012a33

Abstract

Background: The first 1,000 days of life are a unique period for the brain architecture. The development of perceptual, sensorimotor, social and language systems depend crucially on environmental stimulation. Multiple factors influence the acquisition of competencies, including health, nutrition, security and safety, responsive caregiving, and early learning. All are necessary for nurturing care and evolve through bi-directional interactions.

Following children from born since adulthood researchers can identify individual trajectories through the different stages of growth that develop in function of the social and the historical context.

Aim: The thesis aims to describe the development and running of a national birth cohort aiming to understand how the influences of environmental and nurture factors, that include also the social context, can affect child health.

Methods: We performed an extensive review aiming for the identification of all the European Birth Cohorts focusing on those that started data collection at birth.

All the information gathered from this review has been essential to defining and running NASCITA (NAscere e CREscere in ITAlia) a national birth cohort officially started on the 1st of April 2019. In this thesis, I will present the protocol, the management and the organization of this birth cohort and some preliminary results.

Results: The enrollment of newborns began on April 1st, 2019. After six months from the start, the number of participating pediatricians was 160 and the number of children enrolled 2264. Most of the mothers (84%) were born in Italy and had a healthy pregnancy. The anthropometric measures of the newborns were showing an average of 3792 grams at birth and 59% of them were also breastfed at 6 months.

Discussion: The only way to understand the epidemiology of diseases and to address related needs is through large epidemiological studies. In NASCITA we aim to perform an in-depth study of child development and health and the impact on them of nurturing care.

Viewing alternatives

Metrics

Item Actions

Export

You can export this page using these formats Digital Object Identifier - DOI