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Latent Effects of Prenatal Malnutrition on Adult Health
Author(s) -
Susser Ezra,
Clair David St.,
He Lin
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1196/annals.1425.024
Subject(s) - malnutrition , disease , medicine , adverse effect , offspring , famine , schizophrenia (object oriented programming) , pregnancy , pediatrics , psychology , environmental health , gerontology , psychiatry , biology , political science , pathology , law , genetics
It is well established that malnutrition in children has adverse effects on development. Only recently, however, has it become possible to examine the full scope of adverse effects of malnutrition across the life course, which would include latent effects of fetal or childhood malnutrition on health and disease in adult life. We review here a series of studies which have linked early prenatal famine to the risk of schizophrenia in the offspring. Thus we aim to draw attention to the need to look beyond the concurrent effects of malnutrition and consider also the effects that may become apparent decades later.