Basic Information

Name of Birth Cohort: Taiwan Birth Panel Study Abbreviation: TBPS
Country/ City: Taiwan/ Taipei Website: www.rhlab.org/tbps.html

Principle Investigator: Pau-Chung Chen
Institute: Institute of Occupational Medicine and Industrial Hygiene, National Taiwan University
Email: pchen@ntu.edu.tw

Contact person: Pau-Chung Chen

Basic Description

Main aim of cohort: To investigate prenatal and postnatal factors on infant and early childhood health. Through this prospective study, the main health outcomes focused on child growth and development, neurobehavioral disorders, and allergic diseases. We investigated the main prenatal and postnatal factors including infection, environmental tobacco smoke, heavy metals, non-persistent pesticides, perfluoroalkyl chemicals, and psychosocial stress under the consideration of interaction of the environment and genes.

Recruited number of:
486/Children, 486/Mothers, 486/Fathers

Approximate proportion of source population included: 0.25%

Source population: Hospital based

Dates of enrollment: Start: June 2004 End: July 2005

Enrollment period: 14 months

Enrollment criteria:
Considering potential environmental exposures in different socio-economic status, we recruited our subjects from one medical hospital in Taipei city (Taipei), one area hospital (Sansia), and two clinics in Taipei County (Sinjhuang, Lujhou). In order to collect the mothers who had the similar characteristic distribution with the general population in Taiwan, we included all pregnant mothers who gave birth during the recruitment period and agreed to join this study.

Key reference:
The Taiwan Birth Panel Study: a prospective cohort study for environmentally- related child health
BMC Research Notes 2011, 4:291 doi:10.1186/1756-0500-4-291

Questionnaire or registry data and biological samples- Children