DCU child health conference calls for EU observatory for children - greater funding needed for child health research

Frances Fitzgerald, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, launched a major EU conference, 'Child Health Research. The Key to a Healthier European Society', at Dublin City University today.

Ms Patricia Reilly, DG for Research in Commissioner Geoghegan-Quinn's cabinet, also attended.

Speaking at the conference, Professor Anthony Staines, lecturer in DCU's School of Nursing and Human Sciences, called on policy-makers to provide greater funding for child health research. "It seems absurd that Ireland, like many other EU countries, has better information on calves, piglets and lambs than children", he said.

He proposed an EU observatory for children, saying that while we know enough to transform the lives of our children, we don't know enough about how to deliver this change. "While we know that healthy ageing begins at conception, we need to focus our attention on the early years of peoples' lives so that a healthy old age is a more likely outcome", he said.

The findings of two major EU reports on child health research were presented at the conference. CHICOS, (Developing a Child Health Research Strategy Across Europe), is currently studying more than 500,000 mothers, fathers and children at repeated time points over long-time periods. The studies are gathering information on important childhood diseases and determinants, such as obesity, asthma, infections, behavioural problems, cognitive development, and social, environmental and genetic characteristics of the children and their parents.

According to CHICOS project coordinator, Dr Diana van Gent, "There is currently no common European database with prospective, individual-level data on child health and determinants, but we have build the groundwork for ongoing birth cohort research in Europe including more than 500,000 mother-child pairs. This can lead to scientific advances of great relevance to European child health policy making. The existing European birth cohorts represent enormous investments in terms of money, time, intellectual resources, commitment of participants and their parents. High level support is needed to turn this into a Europe-wide resource for child health research".

The research consortium, RICHE, Research Inventory for Child Health in Europe, made up of researchers from 23 European countries, is recommending a roadmap for child health research in Europe. The report recommends giving children a greater priority in census data and household surveys, in order to allow greater analysis of children's domestic and social environments. It also calls for more cross-cultural European longitudinal studies in child health, including cross-country comparisons and greater development of age-related indicators in specific research areas.