CARA and Peter Ziebarth signed up to The Origins Project last year when Cara was only six months pregnant with their first child, Oscar.
The major longitudinal birth cohort study conducted by the Telethon Kids Institute at the Joondalup Health Campus, is one of the nation’s most comprehensive studies into chronic child health.
The study will follow 10,000 WA children from birth for the next five years.
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READ NOWMrs Ziebarth said the thing that attracted her to the study was knowing they would have regular health checks.
She said her sister and husband had experienced various allergies and she was keen to keep on top of any issues that presented with Oscar.
“The comfort of knowing that if they noticed something through their regular health checks or testing, whether it was allergy related or not, they would let us know,” she said. “If we weren’t doing this (study) we might have had no idea.”
Since signing on, the families involved have filled out several questionnaires and provided a number of blood and other samples, including samples of the contents of their vacuum cleaner at set intervals.
She said although the study was a five-year commitment it wasn’t onerous and meant she had first-hand information from experts in the field.
“It gives us something fun to do , but it’s also contributing to that research.”
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