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Abstract:
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The National Children's Study (NCS) is a national household probability sample designed to identify 100,000 pregnancies and follow the resulting offspring for 21 years. The inferential validity of the NCS will depend heavily on the field operations performance. Real time performance adjustments may include increased tracking of lost participants and increased personnel/training for biological specimen collection. In particular, providing prophylaxis rather than analytic treatment for missing data will be critical. Simultaneous longitudinal monitoring of performance metrics will provide a basis for realignment of resources to address performance. The approach, an interactive economic model constrained by a fixed budget, considers intervention costs, inferential validity and precision, and impact of NCS study results on the reduction of the US burden of disease.
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