A thousand families from 15 O'ahu neighborhoods will be involved in the largest study of child and human health ever conducted in the United States, beginning in January 2009.

The National Children's Study will be a nationwide research effort spanning two decades and dedicated to gathering data to treat and prevent some of the nation's most pressing health problems, such as autism, asthma, birth defects, heart disease and obesity, the University of Hawai'i's John A. Burns School of Medicine announced yesterday.

The study will involve 100,000 families nationwide, of which about 1,000 will be from Hawai'i.

Dr. Lynnae Sauvage, interim chair of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Women's Health at the medical school and head of the Hawai'i study effort, said funding for the first five years of the study in this state will be $14.5 million. Research dollars to Hawai'i could total $50 million over 20 years.

The study will be concentrated on O'ahu and involve work with healthcare professionals, community leaders, hospitals and the state Health Department, and door-to-door recruitment of women who are pregnant or likely to have a child to participate in the study, Sauvage said.

The plan is to identify 15 geographically and culturally diverse neighborhoods and set up screening for environmental factors such as dust and pollution, and health screening and monitoring of mothers and children, added Sauvage. "We will have our first patients ready on Jan. 1, 2009," she said.