Intersystem Implications of the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: Advancing Health Promotion in the 21st Century

Abstract

The developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) theory and life course theory (LCT) are emerging fields of research that have significant implications for the public health and health promotion professions. Using a DOHaD/LCT perspective, social determinants of health (SDH) take on new critical meaning by which health promotion professionals can implement DOHaD/LCT guided interventions, including recommended policies. Through these interventions, public health could further address the sources of worldwide chronic disease epidemics and reduce such disease rates substantially if related policy, programs, and interdisciplinary and multi-sector collaboration are emphasized. Additional characteristics of the most effective interventions involve context-specific adaptation and societal structures that impact upstream, early life environments on a broad scale, influencing multiple locations and/or diseases.

Knowledge about the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease is independently associated with variation in diet quality during pregnancy

“…One such alternative explanation includes how cognitively easy or difficult it is to assimilate concepts measured by each of the scales. The DOHaD hypothesis has been discussed academically for the last 30 years (Barnes et al, ), but its translation has been difficult (McKerracher et al, ). The core idea that the early life environment shapes how you grow and thus can affect your later‐life health is relatively straightforward.…”

“…The core idea that the early life environment shapes how you grow and thus can affect your later‐life health is relatively straightforward. However, what exactly is meant by environment, how different kinds of environments might affect growth and development and in what ways, and how developmental trajectories might influence risks for developing diabetes, obesity, or heart disease decades after exposures are not easily understandable (Barnes et al, ; Winett, Wallack, Richardson, Boone‐Heinonen, & Messer, , Winett, Wulf, & Wallack, ). Furthermore, the DOHaD hypothesis confronts the dominant Western narrative about obesity and metabolic health (Monaghan, ; Warin, Turner, Moore, & Davies, ).…”

“…The DOHaD hypothesis has been discussed academically for the last 30 years (Barnes et al, 2016), but its translation has been diffi- (Monaghan, 2017;Warin, Turner, Moore, & Davies, 2008). Namely, Westerners most often intuit that individuals, especially adults, are responsible for and cause their own health-related behaviours and health outcomes (Marmot & Bell, 2019;.…”

“…Although these diseases manifest mainly in adulthood, abundant evidence indicates that the main risk factors for metabolism-related NCDs are established during the peri-conceptional and foetal stages of development (Barker et al, 2017;Fleming et al, 2018;Stephenson et al, 2018). The idea that early lifeespecially prenatal-environments shape developmental trajectories, which then affect later-life disease risk (Barker & Osmond, 1986), is now most widely referred to as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis (Barnes, Heaton, Coates, & Packer, 2016).…”

Translating the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease concept to improve the nutritional environment for our next generations: a call for a reflexive, positive, multi-level approach

“…[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] The proposition that variation in risk of developing NCDs is determined largely by early life environmental exposures is most often referred to as the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) concept. 9,13 For at least the last two decades, researchers with relevant expertise from a variety of backgrounds have called for intervening action based on the substantial body of evidence supporting the DOHaD hypothesis. The evidence indicates that future morbidity, mortality, and health inequity related to NCDs is preventable through early life intervention.…”