Developmental Perspectives on Health Disparities from Conception Through Adulthood

Description

• Focuses on how the prenatal and perinatal environments interact with contextual risk factors and genetic factors to have long-term effects on health and biological functioning across generations
• Addresses how behavioral, social, and biological factors are linked to health problems in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood

Back to Research Initiatives

Research Projects

Influence of maternal/fetal nutrition and growth on adult health and function in the Philippines
Principal Investigator: Linda Adair (University of North Carolina) Co-investigator: Christopher Kuzawa

Undernutrition and stress experienced during the prenatal and early postnatal environments may increase risk for such common adult health problems as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and heart attacks. This longitudinal study has followed several thousand Filipinos and their mothers since the third trimester of pregnancy in 1983 to the present. A lifetime of detailed information is available for each participant in this study, allowing us to clarify the importance of experiences early in life to blood pressure, cholesterol and other measures of disease risk in adulthood. This research is particularly important for populations like the Philippines, as undernutrition early in life may be followed by economically and culturally-driven changes in dietary and activity patterns, including a rising prevalence of overweight and related chronic diseases. As the offspring in this study are now having offspring of their own, the study spans three generations, providing important opportunities to investigate these intergenerational influences on healthy development and long-term health in a rapidly urbanizing and changing society.

Community Child Health Network (CCHN)
Principal Investigator of the Chicago Site: Madeleine Shalowitz Co-investigators: Emma Adam, Greg Duncan, Christopher Kuzawa, Thom McDade

This NICHD-funded project is a unique academic-community collaboration, initiated with the aim of using a community-based participatory research model to improve our understanding of how economic and social environments contribute to early health and developmental disparities along racial and economic lines. This longitudinal study will be fielded in a representative sample of families from 5 U.S. regions...(MORE)

Social Determinants of Obesity and Child Development

C2S graduate student Chelsea Richmond's research interests include health issues that disproportionately affect low-income and minority families. She is currently studying the social determinants of obesity and its consequences on child development.

Back to Research Initiatives