Developmental Origins of Health and Disease in Adolescents
Summary
The developmental origins of health and disease framework recognises that exposures during critical windows of growth—from conception through infancy and childhood—profoundly influence health trajectories in adolescence and beyond. During teenage years, rapid somatic and endocrine changes interact with earlier programming of metabolic, cardiovascular and neuroendocrine systems. Evidence from birth cohorts worldwide highlights how maternal nutrition, prenatal stress and early environmental chemicals shape epigenetic marks, insulin sensitivity, lipid profiles and pubertal timing. Adolescence thus represents both a vulnerable and an opportunistic period: interventions tailored to modulate diet, physical activity and psychosocial support can alter trajectories set in motion before birth. Advances in multi-omic profiling, imaging and longitudinal study design are elucidating pathways that link early exposures to teenage health outcomes, offering concrete targets for prevention of non-communicable diseases globally.
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Technical terms
Epigenetics: Heritable modifications of gene expression not involving changes to the DNA sequence, often triggered by early-life exposures.
Metabolic programming: Lasting influence of nutritional and hormonal conditions in early development on metabolic regulation and disease susceptibility.
Pubertal timing: The age and sequence at which secondary sexual characteristics emerge, shaped by genetic, nutritional and environmental factors.
Lifecourse approach: A strategy that addresses determinants of health from preconception through older age to prevent chronic diseases.
Anthropometry: Quantitative measurement of body size, shape and composition used to assess growth and nutritional status.
References
- Developmental Origins of Health and Disease: A Lifecourse Approach to the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases. Healthcare (2017).
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