Study Topics and Process

---

We started to conduct Taiwan birth panel study to investigate prenatal and postnatal factors on infant and early childhood health in 2004. Our study recruited 486 paired mother and child in Northern Taiwan. We collect biological specimen such as cord blood, placenta, urine, saliva and hair with questionnaires at the  ages of birth, 4 months, 6 months, 1 years, 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years and 9-10 years. 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.