Christopher Kuzawa

Associate Professor of Anthropology
Faculty Fellow, Institute for Policy Research
Northwestern University
Ph.D., Anthropology and MSPH, Epidemiology
Emory University, 2001
kuzawa@northwestern.edu
Curriculum Vitae

As a biological anthropologist with training in epidemiology, Kuzawa’s research focuses on the role that the intrauterine and early postnatal environments have on development and long-term health. The premise of this research, supported by studies in both human populations and animal models, is that what a mother eats during pregnancy, her access to adequate prenatal care, or her stress level, may permanently alter offspring biology in a fashion that influences risk for the most common causes of adult morbidity and mortality, including hypertension, diabetes, and heart attacks. This is a novel example of what is known as “developmental plasticity,” or the sensitivity of the developing body to the environment experienced during early stages of development.

Current Research

Early nutrition, growth and adult health in the Philippines. Since 1998, Kuzawa has worked with collaborators at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and Filipino researchers at the University of San Carlos, Cebu City on the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey. The study is one of the few in a developing nation capable of exploring this problem with longitudinal data extending back to pregnancy. Having enrolled more than 3,000 pregnant mothers in 1983, the study has since followed both the mothers and their offspring, who are now young adults having children of their own. The results of this research suggest that the nutritional and lifestyle changes underway in the Philippines are likely to have more adverse effects on the health of those individuals who were born small or to mothers who were undernourished while pregnant.

Intergenerational influences on U.S. health disparities. Kuzawa has begun to explore the application of this intergenerational model of biology and health to the problem of U.S. health disparities. By linking early life health disparities, such as low birth weight or premature birth, with adult health disparities, such as hypertension or diabetes, the model could help explain patterns of health disparities that tend to cluster across the lifecycle in specific demographic subgroups. He is helping plan Northwestern’s contribution to the Community Child Health Network, a community-university collaboration that will explore the causes and consequences of race disparities in poor birth outcomes and early child development in five U.S. cities.

Interdisciplinary Center for Health Disparities Research. Working with other IPR faculty fellows from several departments, Kuzawa helped launch Cells to Society: The Center on Social Disparities and Health, a new research center that aims to promote interdisciplinary approaches to the study of social disparities and health at Northwestern.

Selected Publications

Kuzawa C.W., P.D. Gluckman, and M.A. Hanson (in press). “Developmental perspectives on the origins of obesity. In Adipose Tissue and Adipokines in Health and Disease, ed. E. Fantuzzi and T. Mazzone. Totowa, N.J.: Humana Press.

Kuzawa, C.W. (2005). “The fetal origins of developmental plasticity. Are maternal cues reliable predictors of future nutritional environments?” American Journal of Human Biology 17(1) 1-4

Kuzawa, C.W. and I.L. Pike (2005). “The fetal origins of developmental plasticity. Introduction to the special issue,” American Journal of Human Biology 17(1): 5-21.

Kuzawa, C.W., and L.S. Adair (2004). “A supply-demand model of fetal energy sufficiency predicts lipid profiles in male but not female adolescent Filipinos.” European Journal of Clinical Nutrition 58(3): 438-48.

Kuzawa, C.W. (2004). “Modeling fetal adaptation to nutrient restriction: testing the fetal origins hypothesis with a supply-demand model.” Journal of Nutrition 134:194-200.

Kuzawa, C.W., L.S. Adair, J.L. Avila, J.H.C. Cadungog, and N.-A. Le (2003). “Atherogenic lipid profiles in Filipino adolescents with low body mass index and low dietary fat intake.” American Journal of Human Biology 15(5): 688-96.

Kuzawa, C.W., and L.S. Adair (2003). “Lipid profiles in an adolescent Filipino population: relationship to birth weight and maternal energy status during pregnancy.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 77:960-66.

Adair, L.S., C.W. Kuzawa, and J. Borja (2001). “Maternal energy stores and diet composition during pregnancy program adolescent blood pressure.” Circulation 104(9): 1034-9.