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RecruitingNCT03228875Updated Sep 11, 2026

Boston Birth Cohort Study

An observational study in Maternal Health, Child Health and Pregnancy Complications, sponsored by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 0 Years to 50 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-09-11.

Sponsored by Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
24,000
Ages
0 Years to 50 Years
Sex
All
01

Study 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 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.

02

Conditions studied

  • Maternal Health
  • Child Health
  • Pregnancy Complications
  • Birth Outcome, Adverse

Keywords

  • Boston Birth Cohort
  • Early life origins of pediatric and adult disease
  • Gene environment interaction
  • Health across life course and generations
03

Who can participate

Ages eligible
0 Years to 50 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

US, predominantly urban, multi-ethnic population.

Inclusion criteria

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

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • pregnancies that are a result of in vitro fertilization or that involve multiple gestations, fetal chromosomal abnormalities or major birth defects.
04

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
24,000 participants (estimated)
Target follow-up
21 Years
Patient registry
Yes
Biospecimen retention
Samples with dna
05

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

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

    hypertensive disorders during pregnancy, gestational diabetes

    Time frame: At birth

  2. Birth outcomes - number of participants with preterm births

    Birth outcomes are examined - preterm birth.

    Time frame: At birth

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

    Birth outcomes are examined - birth weight (g)

    Time frame: At birth

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

    overweight or obesity

    Time frame: From birth to 21 years

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

    maternal diabetes

    Time frame: After delivery to 21 years

  6. child health outcome - systolic and diastolic blood pressure

    blood pressure (mmHg)

    Time frame: 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

    Time frame: from birth to 21 years

  8. child health outcome - number of participants with asthma

    asthma

    Time frame: from birth to 21 years

06

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
  • Boston Medical Center
    Boston, Massachusetts 02118, United States
    Recruiting
07

References and documents

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 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

08

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03228875
Lead sponsor
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Collaborators
Boston Medical Center, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jul 25, 2017
Start date
Oct 1998
Primary completion
Dec 2028 (estimated)
Completion
Dec 2032 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 11, 2026

Study contacts

Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD
Contact
xwang82@jhu.edu
410-9555824
Xiaobin Wang, MD, ScD
principal investigator · Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

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