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Pre-emptive Medicine: Public Health Aspects of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease pp 21–36Cite as

DOHaD Cohort Studies and Public Health Implications in Japan

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Abstract

Because the “Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD)” hypothesis recently became widely known in a medical research area, fetal and childhood environment has been drawing more attention. In addition, based on the DOHaD, childhood growth trajectories, which are described by multilevel analysis, might be important in examining the effects of early-life environment. Therefore, it becomes more important to establish epidemiological evidence related to DOHaD from population-based birth cohort studies which include the study that uses the dataset from some public health activities. Moreover, it is also important to apply the findings from these studies to public health. In this chapter, some nationwide and local birth cohort studies and the results related to DOHaD from these studies are introduced. For instance, the association between maternal smoking status during pregnancy and birthweight from “Japanese Environment and Children’s Study” which is conducted by the Ministry of Environment, and childhood growth trajectories according to maternal smoking status during pregnancy from Project Koshu, are described.

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Abbreviations

BMI:

Body mass index

CI:

Confidence interval

DM:

Diabetes mellitus

DOHaD:

Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

GDM:

Gestational diabetes mellitus

HG:

Hyperemesis gravidarum

JECS:

Japan Environment and Children’s Study

LBW:

Low birth weight

NS:

Never-smokers

NVP:

Nausea and vomiting in early pregnancy

OR:

Odds ratio

PIH:

Pregnancy-induced hypertension

SD:

Standard deviation

SGA:

Small-for-gestational-age

SM:

Current smokers

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Acknowledgment

I thank the participants of these studies, the JECS staff and the collaborating hospitals and clinics, the staff of the Administrative Office of Koshu City and current and former members of the Department Health Sciences and the Center for Birth Cohort Studies, University of Yamanashi.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health and Psychosocial Medicine, Aichi Medical University School of Medicine, Nagakute, Aichi, Japan

    Kohta Suzuki

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  1. Kohta Suzuki
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Correspondence to Kohta Suzuki .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Chuo University Health Center, Tokyo, Japan

    Fumihiro Sata

  2. Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan

    Hideoki Fukuoka

  3. University of Southampton, Academic Unit of Human Development & Health, Southampton, UK

    Mark Hanson

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Suzuki, K. (2019). DOHaD Cohort Studies and Public Health Implications in Japan. In: Sata, F., Fukuoka, H., Hanson, M. (eds) Pre-emptive Medicine: Public Health Aspects of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease. Current Topics in Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2194-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2194-8_2

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  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2194-8

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