TY - JOUR
T1 - The developmental origins of health and disease in international perspective
AU - Haas, Steven A.
AU - Oi, Katsuya
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant ( R03AG048885 ) from the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2018/9
Y1 - 2018/9
N2 - The developmental origins of health and disease and the comparative international approach are two important strands of research exploring population health. Despite the potential insights to be gained from integrating the two approaches, their nexus remains an underexplored frontier. The current study investigates international variation in the early life origins of health among aging cohorts in 13 countries. We examine cross-national differences in exposure to poor childhood health and socioeconomic disadvantage, whether the long-term health associations with those exposures vary across contexts, and whether they persist in the face of subsequent accumulation of socioeconomic and behavioral risk. Finally, we investigate whether childhood health and socioeconomic circumstances help explain between-country differences in later life health. The findings suggest substantial international variation in the exposure to early life health and socioeconomic insults. We also find variation in their association with later life health. However, early life factors appear to play a modest role in explaining international differences in later life health in the contexts examined here.
AB - The developmental origins of health and disease and the comparative international approach are two important strands of research exploring population health. Despite the potential insights to be gained from integrating the two approaches, their nexus remains an underexplored frontier. The current study investigates international variation in the early life origins of health among aging cohorts in 13 countries. We examine cross-national differences in exposure to poor childhood health and socioeconomic disadvantage, whether the long-term health associations with those exposures vary across contexts, and whether they persist in the face of subsequent accumulation of socioeconomic and behavioral risk. Finally, we investigate whether childhood health and socioeconomic circumstances help explain between-country differences in later life health. The findings suggest substantial international variation in the exposure to early life health and socioeconomic insults. We also find variation in their association with later life health. However, early life factors appear to play a modest role in explaining international differences in later life health in the contexts examined here.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.047
DO - 10.1016/j.socscimed.2018.07.047
M3 - Article
C2 - 30077958
AN - SCOPUS:85050885901
VL - 213
SP - 123
EP - 133
JO - Ethics in Science and Medicine
JF - Ethics in Science and Medicine
SN - 0277-9536
ER -