California Center of BD-STEPS - Finding Causes and Preventives of Birth Defects

描述(申请人提供)：出生缺陷是美国婴儿死亡的主要原因。出生缺陷还会带来巨大的情感和财政成本。加州中心的研究工作，无论是独立的，还是与其他为国家出生缺陷预防研究(NBDPS)做出贡献的出生缺陷研究中心(CBDRP)合作的，一直处于公共卫生出生缺陷研究的前沿。有了这一新的资助机会，我们中心将进一步加强对特定出生缺陷潜在原因的科学了解，这无疑将对常见、昂贵和致命畸形的风险评估和预防具有重要影响。在这项申请中，我们提出了以下目标：目标1.通过积极参与出生缺陷研究以评估妊娠暴露(BD-STEPS)和目标2.利用BD-STEPS和NBDPS的数据进行合作和本地研究，以确定选定出生缺陷的潜在可修改风险因素，以减少美国出生缺陷的公共健康负担，从而增强出生缺陷和研究和预防中心的流行病学公共卫生研究能力。加州中心装备齐全，可以为BD-STEPS做出贡献-它是出生缺陷流行病学的世界领先者，在基于人口的出生缺陷研究的开发、数据收集和信息传播方面经验丰富，其在CBDRP及其高度创新的研究组合中的表现就是例证。我们中心在开展与BD-STEPS重点领域相关的研究方面拥有丰富的经验，包括产妇慢性疾病、糖尿病、肥胖症、体力活动、不孕不育和药物使用。我们已经提出了几个分析性调查，并辅之以使用额外的创新数据集和分析方法，这将使我们能够协作地继续阐明这些和其他可改变的危险因素对出生缺陷的贡献。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Birth defects are the leading cause of infant mortality in the US. Birth defects also have enormous associated emotional and fiscal costs. The California Center's research efforts, both independently and in collaboration with other Centers for Birth Defects Research and Prevention (CBDRP) contributing to the National Birth Defects Prevention Study (NBDPS), have been at the forefront of public health birth defects research. With this new funding opportunity, our Center will further enhance scientific understanding of the potential causes of specific birth defects, which will undoubtedly have important implications for risk assessment and prevention of common, costly, and deadly malformations. In this application, we propose the following aims: Aim 1. Enhance the epidemiologic public health research capacity of the Centers for Birth Defects and Research and Prevention by actively participating in the Birth Defects Study to Evaluate Pregnancy Exposures (BD-STEPS) and Aim 2. Utilize data from BD-STEPS as well as NBDPS for collaborative and local studies that will identify potential modifiable risk factors for selected birth defects to reduce the public heath burden of birth defects in the US. The California Center is well-equipped to contribute to BD-STEPS - it is a world leader in birth defects epidemiology and highly experienced in the development, data collection, and dissemination of information from population-based studies of birth defects, exemplified by its performance within the CBDRP and its highly innovative research portfolio. Our Center has extensive experience conducting research related to the BD- STEPS areas of focus, which include maternal chronic medical conditions, diabetes, obesity, physical activity, infertility and medication use. We have proposed several analytic inquiries, complemented by the use of additional innovative datasets and analytic approaches, which will enable us to collaboratively continue elucidating the contribution of these and other modifiable risk factors to birth defects.