Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Furthermore, published intervention trials are restricted to premature infants.

Getting the right answers, however, is more than an academic issue. Beyond reproducing the observation that lower birth weight is associated with heart-disease outcomes, Barker et al. Birth weight is easily measured and is available from historical records, but if the truth be told, it is a dreadful marker of prenatal etiologic pathways. Investigators have recognized that the initially invoked concept of maternal undernutrition is a simplistic model of prenatal influences.

They now consider perturbations anywhere along the entire fetal-supply line, which includes not only maternal diet but also uteroplacental blood flow, placental function, and fetal metabolism. Indeed, for most of the epidemiologic associations described to date, the extent to which interventions that are intended to modify risk can improve long-term health is not yet clear.

FROM EPIDEMIOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS TO THE FETAL ORIGINS HYPOTHESIS

In populations of the world that are undergoing the nutritional and epidemiologic transition to Western styles of diet, sedentary behavior, obesity, and chronic diseases, the ominous pattern that Barker et al. It is therefore imperative that, along with vigorous efforts to optimize childhood growth, researchers and policymakers identify, quantify, and evaluate strategies to modify prenatal and perinatal determinants of adverse adult health outcomes. These are the goals of the field of inquiry known as the developmental origins of health and disease, which is now represented by a learned society, the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, and by yearly interdisciplinary congresses that are devoted to catalyzing a rapid expansion of research and policy initiatives.

Slowly but surely, investigators in this field are learning ways by which ensuring the well-being of women of reproductive age and their newborn children can have substantial health-promoting effects in the next generation. National Center for Biotechnology Information , U. N Engl J Med. Author manuscript; available in PMC Jul 4. Author information Copyright and License information Disclaimer.

The publisher's final edited version of this article is available at N Engl J Med. See other articles in PMC that cite the published article. The effect of finite periods of undernutrition at different ages on the composition and subsequent development of the rat.

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Developmental origins of the metabolic syndrome: Mothers, babies, and disease in later life. Oken E, Gillman MW. Fetal origins of obesity. Insulin resistance syndrome in 8-year-old Indian children: Rapid child growth raises blood pressure in adolescent boys who were thin at birth. Birthweight and adult health outcomes in a biethnic population in the USA.

Birth-weight, body-mass index in middle age, and incident coronary heart disease. Longitudinal study of birth weight and adult body mass index in predicting risk of coronary heart disease and stroke in women. Trajectories of growth among children who have coronary events as adults. Relation of serial changes in childhood body-mass index to impaired glucose tolerance in young adulthood. Developmental origins of adult disease.

Med Princ Pract , 19 , Developmental origins of health and disease: Risk factors and outcomes associated with first-trimester fetal growth restriction. JAMA , , External Links Notice - The dynamic nature of the internet may mean that some of these listed links may no longer function. If the link no longer works search the web with the link text or name. Links to any external commercial sites are provided for information purposes only and should never be considered an endorsement.

UNSW Embryology is provided as an educational resource with no clinical information or commercial affiliation. Discussion View source History. Delivery of a small for gestational age infant and greater maternal risk of ischemic heart disease.

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Birth weight and cognitive function at age 11 years: Infant growth and child cognition at 3 years of age. Pediatrics , , e Statistics Birth Human Fetus Postnatal. This page was last modified on 30 May , at Privacy policy About Embryology Disclaimers. Google Translate - select your language from the list shown below this will open a new external page. Delivery of a small for gestational age infant and greater maternal risk of ischemic heart disease [1] "Delivery of a small for gestational age SGA infant has been associated with increased maternal risk of ischemic heart disease IHD.

Risk of maternal IHD was evaluated in a population based cross-sectional study of 6, women with a prior live term birth who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey , a probability sample of the U. This search now requires a manual link as the original PubMed extension has been disabled. The displayed list of references do not reflect any editorial selection of material based on content or relevance.