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AzTrials

Maternal HealthNCT03228875

Boston Birth Cohort Study

An observational study of Maternal Health and Child Health, run by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at 1 site in United States.

Recruiting

Looking for participants now. Contact the study team or a site below to ask about taking part.

Sites and contacts
Official record
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Trial summary

Early life exposures may lead to adverse effects on health in later life. The Boston birth Cohort study is designed to study a broad array of early life factors and their effects on maternal and child health outcomes across the life course. Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 0 to 50 years
How many people
24,000 participants
Where
1 siteUnited States
Study dates
Oct 1998to Dec 2032
How long will I take part?
21 Years
Phase
Observational
Are there results?
Not yet: the study is under way

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 0 to 50 years
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Child, Adult

Study population: US, predominantly urban, multi-ethnic population.

Who may be able to join

  • Mothers who deliver singleton live births at Boston Medical Center are eligible for the study.

Who cannot join

  • pregnancies that are a result of in vitro fertilization or that involve multiple gestations, fetal chromosomal abnormalities or major birth defects.

Trial locations and contacts

1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.

Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD contact

410-9555824

xwang82@jhu.edu

United States1 site, 1 recruiting

  • Boston Medical Center

    Boston, Massachusetts, 02118

    Colleen Pearson, BA, 617-414-5133, Colleen.pearson@bmc.org

    Recruiting

Other trials in United States

About this study

Official title: Early Life Origins of Pediatric and Adult Diseases: Boston Birth Cohort Study

Early life exposures may lead to adverse effects on health in later life. The Boston birth Cohort study is designed to study a broad array of early life factors and their effects on maternal and child health outcomes across the life course.

Read the detailed description

Any woman admitted to the Labor and Delivery floor at the Boston Medical Center (BMC) who delivers a singleton live infant and meets our case (gestational age <37 weeks or birthweight <2,500 grams) or control (full term birth with birthweight >2,500 grams) criteria will be eligible.

Postnatal follow-up of enrolled mother-child pair is conducted from birth to age 21 years.

The Boston Birth Cohort has high-quality biospecimen collection, and comprehensive epidemiological, clinical, and environmental exposure data via standardized questionnaire interview, measurements, and review of the electronic medical records.

Keywords
Boston Birth Cohort, Early life origins of pediatric and adult disease, Gene environment interaction, Health across life course and generations
Medical subject headings
Pregnancy Complications, Disease

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Participants with Pregnancy complications - including hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes

    hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, gestational diabetes

    Measured: At birth

  2. Birth outcomes - number of participants with preterm births

    Birth outcomes are examined - preterm birth.

    Measured: At birth

  3. Birth outcomes - birth weight in grams (g)

    Birth outcomes are examined - birth weight (g)

    Measured: At birth

  4. Child health outcomes - number of participants overweight or obese

    overweight or obesity

    Measured: From birth to 21 years

  5. Maternal health outcomes - number of participants with maternal diabetes

    maternal diabetes

    Measured: After delivery to 21 years

  6. child health outcome - systolic and diastolic blood pressure

    blood pressure (mmHg)

    Measured: from birth to 21 years

  7. child health outcome - participants with neuro-developmental disorders including autism and ADHD

    neuro-developmental disorders including autism and ADHD

    Measured: from birth to 21 years

  8. child health outcome - number of participants with asthma

    asthma

    Measured: from birth to 21 years

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted25 Jul 2017
  2. Study startOct 1998
  3. Primary completionDec 2028 (estimated)
  4. Study completionDec 2032 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Observational
Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrolment
24,000 participants (estimated)
Target duration
21 Years
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT03228875
Sponsor's protocol ID
IRB00022869
Status last verified
Sep 2026
First submitted
20 Jul 2017
Last updated
11 Sep 2026
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Publications

  • Pearson C, Bartell T, Wang G, Hong X, Rusk SA, Fu L, Cerda S, Bustamante-Helfrich B, Kuohung W, Yarrington C, Adams WG, Wang X. Boston Birth Cohort profile: rationale and study design. Precis Nutr. 2022 Aug 18;1(2):e00011. doi: 10.1097/PN9.0000000000000011. eCollection 2022 Sep.

    PubMed 37745944

  • Yaskolka Meir A, Wang G, Hong X, Hu FB, Wang X, Liang L. Newborn DNA methylation age differentiates long-term weight trajectories: the Boston Birth Cohort. BMC Med. 2024 Sep 11;22(1):373. doi: 10.1186/s12916-024-03568-9.

    PubMed 39256781

  • Cameron K, Borahay M, Hong X, Baker V, Vaught A, Wang X. Uterine fibroids and risk of hypertensive disorders of pregnancy - results from a racially diverse high-risk cohort. medRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Mar 7:2024.03.05.24303830. doi: 10.1101/2024.03.05.24303830.

    PubMed 38496516

  • Hong X, Rosenberg AZ, Heymann J, Yoshida T, Waikar SS, Ilori TO, Wang G, Rebuck H, Pearson C, Wang MC, Winkler CA, Kopp JB, Wang X. Joint Associations of Pregnancy Complications and Postpartum Maternal Renal Biomarkers With Severe Cardiovascular Morbidities: A US Racially and Ethnically Diverse Prospective Birth Cohort Study. J Am Heart Assoc. 2023 Nov 21;12(22):e029311. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.122.029311. Epub 2023 Nov 10.

    PubMed 37947096

  • McArthur KL, Zhang M, Hong X, Wang G, Buckley JP, Wang X, Mueller NT. Trimethylamine N-Oxide and Its Precursors Are Associated with Gestational Diabetes Mellitus and Pre-Eclampsia in the Boston Birth Cohort. Curr Dev Nutr. 2022 Jun 21;6(7):nzac108. doi: 10.1093/cdn/nzac108. eCollection 2022 Jul.

    PubMed 35949367

  • Huang W, Igusa T, Wang G, Buckley JP, Hong X, Bind E, Steffens A, Mukherjee J, Haltmeier D, Ji Y, Xu R, Hou W, Tina Fan Z, Wang X. In-utero co-exposure to toxic metals and micronutrients on childhood risk of overweight or obesity: new insight on micronutrients counteracting toxic metals. Int J Obes (Lond). 2022 Aug;46(8):1435-1445. doi: 10.1038/s41366-022-01127-x. Epub 2022 May 19.

    PubMed 35589962

  • Lee ASE, Ji Y, Raghavan R, Wang G, Hong X, Pearson C, Mirolli G, Bind E, Steffens A, Mukherjee J, Haltmeier D, Fan ZT, Wang X. Maternal prenatal selenium levels and child risk of neurodevelopmental disorders: A prospective birth cohort study. Autism Res. 2021 Dec;14(12):2533-2543. doi: 10.1002/aur.2617. Epub 2021 Sep 24.

    PubMed 34558795

  • Olapeju B, Hong X, Wang G, Summers A, Burd I, Cheng TL, Wang X. Birth outcomes across the spectrum of maternal age: dissecting aging effect versus confounding by social and medical determinants. BMC Pregnancy Childbirth. 2021 Sep 1;21(1):594. doi: 10.1186/s12884-021-04077-w.

    PubMed 34470614

  • Olapeju B, Ahmed S, Hong X, Wang G, Summers A, Cheng TL, Burd I, Wang X. Maternal Hypertensive Disorders in Pregnancy and Postpartum Plasma B Vitamin and Homocysteine Profiles in a High-Risk Multiethnic U.S., Population. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2020 Dec;29(12):1520-1529. doi: 10.1089/jwh.2020.8420. Epub 2020 Nov 16.

    PubMed 33252313

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

An observational study of Maternal Health and Child Health, run by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at 1 site in United States.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 11 Sep 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD (410-9555824, xwang82@jhu.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Participants with Pregnancy complications - including hypertensive disorders and gestational diabetes (time frame: At birth). The study lists 8 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03228875, which also lists 9 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 11 Sep 2026.

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