This chapter presents evidence that restraint of growth and development during critical periods of fetal life and infancy have an important effect on the development of cardiovascular disease.

https://jech.bmj.com/content/jech/46/1/8.full.pdf

The maternal and fetal origins of cardiovascular disease.

This article investigates the influence of health on the growth paths often industrialized countries over the course of 100 to 125 years. Changes in health increased their pace of growth by 30 to 40 percent, altering permanently the slope of their growth paths. This fmding is robust across five measures of long-term health and it remains largely unchanged when "controlled" for investment in physical capital. Healthrelated variables correlate positively with years of schooling. However, schooling variables by themselves do not replicate the results obtained from health-related measures. Health improvements thus do not merely follow economic progress. T heories of growth assign a pivotal role to human ability. But the pertinence of health to ability and to growth remains largely unexamined. While economists have observed health's influence on human productive capacity at the micro level, it is yet unknown whether that influence extends to the aggregate level, especially over a longer period.' Despite numerous empirical studies of growth, few have examined the long-term effects of the nineteenth century's unique developments, a gap this study tries to narrow. Doing so, however, constrains the choice of countries because data for only a handful of countries extend into the nineteenth century. The countries and time spans selected are Australia (188 1-1994), Denmark (1870-1992), Finland (1881-1992), France (1870-1994), Italy

Health, human productivity, and long-term economic growth

Part 1: Domains of Development Across Cultures J J Goodnow, Culture F J R Van De Vijver, J Hofer, A Chasiotis, Methodology C M Worthman, Survival and Health K E Adolph, L B Karasik, C S, Tamis-LeMonda, Motor Skill J F Werker, D M Maurer, K A Yoshida, Perception M Cole, X E Cagigas, Cognition E Lieven, S Stoll, Language D A Wagner, Literacy J Kagan, Emotions and Temperament R A Thompson, E A Virmani, Self and Personality D L Best, Gender K H Rubin, C Cheah, M M Menzer, Peers M Gauvain, R D Parke, Socialization M H Bornstein, J E Lansford, Parenting G W Holden, B Vittrup, Religion Part 2: Development in Different Places on Earth C S Tamis-LeMonda, K E McFadden, The United States of America R De Castro Ribas, Jr, Central and South America M Pinquart, R K Silbereisen, European Union R A Ahmed, North Africa and the Middle East A B Nsamenang, J L Lo-oh, Afrique Noire D A Nelson, C H Hart, E K Keister, K Piassetskaia, Russia X Chen, L Wang, China D W Shwalb, B J Shwalb, J Nakazawa, J Hyun, H Van Le, M P Satiadarma, East and Southeast Asia: Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, and Indonesia T S Saraswathi, R Dutta, India A V Sanson, J E Paterson, Australia and New Zealand R H Bradley, The HOME Environment M H Bornstein, L R Cote, Immigration and Acculturation

Handbook of cultural developmental science

Glucose intolerance in adults born with intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR) may involve peripheral insulin resistance and/or abnormal endocrine pancreas development during fetal life. We quantified insulin-containing cells in deceased human fetuses with IUGR (<10th percentile, n = 21) or normal growth (control fetuses, n = 15). Paraffin-embedded pancreatic tissues from fetuses older than 32 weeks were obtained from two fetopathology departments. Mean gestational age was 36 weeks in both groups. Tissues with lysis and those fetuses with defects, aneuploidy, or genetic abnormalities were excluded. For each subject, six pancreatic sections spaced evenly throughout the organ were immunostained with anti-insulin antibody. Total tissue and insulin-positive areas were measured by computer-assisted quantitative morphometry. Results were expressed in percentages. To evaluate islet morphogenesis, the percentages of beta-cells inside and outside islets were determined. Islet density was similar in the two groups (P = 0.86). The percentage of pancreatic area occupied by beta-cells (beta-cell fraction) was not correlated with gestational age (r = 0.06 and P = 0.97 in IUGR fetuses; r = 0.12 and P = 0.67 in control fetuses) or body weight (r = 0.16 and P = 0.47 in IUGR fetuses; r = 0.24 and P = 0.39 in control fetuses). Mean beta-cell fraction was 2.53% in the IUGR fetuses and 2.86% in the control fetuses (P = 0.47). The percentage of beta-cells located within islets was identical in the two groups (mean 35%). Our data militate against a primary developmental pancreatic abnormality in human IUGR, leaving peripheral insulin resistance as the most likely mechanism of glucose intolerance in adults born with IUGR.

https://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/content/diabetes/51/2/385.full.pdf

Endocrine Pancreas Development in Growth-Retarded Human Fetuses

The complex relationship between life course and social/economic-psychosocial conditions in a given society has a powerful determining effect on human health. The socioeconomic gradient emerges from a complex mixture of psychosocial and material influences operating at various levels of social aggregation and, also, a series of biological responses whose character and significance vary over the life course. Biological embedding and the “latency” and “pathways” model incorporate the notion of a critical period in development; the pathways model emphasizes the cumulative effect of life events and the ongoing importance of social/economic-psychosocial conditions throughout the life cycle. The models, although conceptually complementary, result in ideological conflict and lend themselves to different policy directions.

Rm. Murray

Papers

Symposium on the childhood environment and adult disease, held at the ciba-foundation, london, 15-17 may 1990 - general discussion