Japan Environment and Children's Study Programme Office
Provides core administrative and technical support for the conduct of the Japan Environment and Children’s Study (JECS).
JECS is a nationwide birth cohort study funded by the Ministry of the Environment. It aims to identify environmental factors that affect the health and development of children. The Programme Office in NIES manages the study in collaboration with the National Center for Child Health and Development, which serves as the Medical Support Centre and provides the Programme Office with medical expertise, as well as with 15 Regional Centres based at universities and research institutes throughout Japan.
Recruitment of pregnant women to the study began in 2011; by the end of 2014, more than 100,000 mother–child pairs had been registered. The Regional Centres are responsible for collecting data, starting from pregnancy and following the children over the long term. In the main study, biannual questionnaires are used to collect information on the participants, such as their health and development, and the environmental factors to which they are exposed. A sub-cohort study involves 5000 children randomly selected from the main cohort, and more in-depth measurement methods such as home visits, ambient air measurements, and psycho-developmental tests; pediatric examinations more thoroughly investigate the impact of environmental factors on outcome variables.
The Programme Office develops standard operation procedures, centralizes the data collected by the Regional Centres, administers the data management system, maintains the repository of biological and environmental samples, and performs exposure measurements; it is also responsible for risk management and participant retention. In addition, the Programme Office takes a leadership role in facilitating collaboration among the domestic and international research groups involved in the environmental birth-cohort study and provides a platform for the efficient exchange of information among the various research groups involved.
