Group leader: Jesús Ibarluzea, Ph.D.

Dept. Health – Provincial Health and Addictions Authority of Gipuzkoa.
Sub-directorate of Public Health of Gipuzkoa mambien3-san@euskadi.eus

Strategic Objectives

INMA Project (Childhood and Environment). A multi-centre monitoring project in which cohorts from Menorca, Sabadell, Granada, Valencia, Asturias and Gipuzkoa participate, and which studies the relationship between exposure to environmental agents and childhood development. The cohort monitoring phases of pregnant women and their children have been carried out, during pregnancy (every three months), at birth, at one year, and at the age of 2 and 4. The next step is to monitor the phases at age 7 and 10.

• To describe the exposure to common contaminants, from the first to the fourth year of life: atmospheric pollution, by products derived from disinfecting the water. To analyse the evolution over time.
• To measure the association between pre-natal and post-natal exposure to atmospheric contaminants and pollutants in drinking water and children’s physical and neurobehavioural development at the ages of 2 and 4 years old.
• To measure the association between pre-natal exposure to pollutants such as POPs and heavy metals (umbilical cord) and the neurobehavioural development of a child at the ages of 2 and 4, analysing the coherence with the results obtained at the age of one year.
• To assess the role of the quality of domestic ecology, the parents’ degree of intelligence, social support network and social class in the neurobehavioural development, sociodemographic determining factors, health and healthy habits: pregnancy and early childhood.
• To integrate the data from this study with those from the other cohorts in the INMA Project.

Main lines of research

• Environmental and atmospheric pollution, drinking water contamination, diet and health.
• Effects of interior and exterior atmospheric pollution and contamination of drinking water and for domestic use in neurodevelopment and respiratory diseases.
• Association between pre-natal exposure and during the early years of life to pollutants such as POPs, endocrine disruptors and heavy metals, and neurobehavioural development in childhood.
• Development, application and/or adaptation of the different scales and testing to assess neurobehavioural and domestic aspects (Etxadi-Gangoiti), school environment and other scales in childhood. Relationship of the aspects of the family structure and function, and cognitive development.
• Sociodemographic and health determining factors during pregnancy and early childhood.
• Obesity and metabolic disorder in childhood.
• Assessment of the physical environmental agents and their effect on health.