Some of you may be interested in learning more about the families we are studying. So far we have visited 70 families who have a child with spina bifida and 82 families who have a child without this birth defect. These two groups of families have been matched in terms of the age, sex, and ethnicity of the child we are studying, and these samples also display similar average family income levels. Moreover, we have recruited the families who have children without spina bifida from the schools that the children in out study with spina bifida attend.

The majority of the children in our study are white (85%) and are on average 8 1/2 years old when we started the study. Moreover, there are equal numbers of male and female participants. In terms of parental information the average age of the mothers is 37 years while that of the fathers is 40 years. The majority of the children live in families with natural birth parents (73%), while 11% live with their mother, and 7% live with their birth mother and stepfather.

We visit families every two years and have already met a lot of you for the second time. We would like to thank all of you again for your participation in our study and look forward to seeing you in the future. If you have any further questions regarding the study please feel free to contact Dr. Grayson Holmbeck at (773) 508-2967.