Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T23:29:51.279Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Early-life conditions and older adult health in low- and middle-income countries: a review

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 July 2012

M. McEniry
M. McEniry*
Affiliation:
Institute for Social Research, ICPSR, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA
*
*Address for correspondence: Dr M. McEniry, Institute for Social Research, ICPSR, Population Studies Center, University of Michigan, 1106G Perry Building, 330 Packard, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48104, United States of America. (Email mmceniry@umich.edu)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Population aging and subsequent projected large increases in chronic conditions will be important health concerns in low- and middle-income countries. Although evidence is accumulating, little is known regarding the impact of poor early-life conditions on older adult (50 years and older) health in these settings. A systematic review of 1141 empirical studies was conducted to identify population-based and community studies in low- and middle-income countries, which examined associations between early-life conditions and older adult health. The resulting review of 20 studies revealed strong associations between (1) in utero/early infancy exposures (independent of other early life and adult conditions) and adult heart disease and diabetes; (2) poor nutrition during childhood and difficulties in adult cognition and diabetes; (3) specific childhood illnesses such as rheumatic fever and malaria and adult heart disease and mortality; (4) poor childhood health and adult functionality/disability and chronic diseases; (5) poor childhood socioeconomic status (SES) and adult mortality, functionality/disability and cognition; and (6) parental survival during childhood and adult functionality/disability and cognition. In several instances, associations remained strong even after controlling for adult SES and lifestyle. Although exact mechanisms cannot be identified, these studies reinforce to some extent the importance of early-life environment on health at older ages. Given the paucity of cohort data from the developing world to examine hypotheses of early-life conditions and older adult health, population-based studies are relevant in providing a broad perspective on the origins of adult health.

Keywords

adult healthearly-life conditionslow- and middle-income countriespopulation aging
Type
Review
Information
Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , February 2013 , pp. 10 - 29
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease 2012 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Elo, IT, Preston, SH. Effects of early-life conditions on adult mortality: a review. Popul Index. 1992; 58, 186–212.Google Scholar
2.Gluckman, PD, Hanson, MA, Cooper, C, Thornburt, KL. Effect of in utero and early-life conditions on adult health and disease. N Engl J Med. 2008; 359, 61–73.Google Scholar
3.Monteiro, PO, Victora, CG. Rapid growth in infancy and childhood and obesity in later life – a systematic review. Obes Rev. 2005; 6, 143–154. Erratum in: Obes Rev. 2005; 6, 267.Google Scholar
4.Osmond, C, Barker, DJ. Fetal, infant, and childhood growth are predictors of coronary heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension in adult men and women. Environ Health Perspect. 2000; 108(Suppl. 3), 545–553.Google Scholar
5.Stein, AD, Wang, M, Martorell, R, et al. Growth patterns in early childhood and final attained stature: data from five birth cohorts from low- and middle-income countries. Am J Hum Biol. 2010; 22, 353–359.Google Scholar
6. MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit. Cohorts, Updated 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2012, from http://www.mrc.soton.ac.uk/index.asp?page=245Google Scholar
7.Martorell, R, Stein, A, Schroeder, D. Early nutrition and later adiposity. J Nutr. 2001; 131, 874S–880S.Google Scholar
8.Schroeder, DG, Martorell, R, Flores, R. Infant and child growth and fatness and fat distribution in Guatemalan adults. Am J Epidemiol. 1999; 149, 177–185.Google Scholar
9.Batty, GD, Horta, BL, Smith, GD, Barros, FC, Victora, C. Early life diarrhoea and later blood pressure in a developing country: the 1982 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study. J Epidemiol Commun H. 2009; 63, 163–165.Google Scholar
10.Sichieri, R, Siqueiros, KS, Moura, AS. Obesity and abdominal fatness associated with undernutrition early in life in a survey in Rio de Janeiro. Int J Obesity. 2000; 24, 614–618.Google Scholar
11.Moore, SE, Cole, TJ, Collinson, AC, et al. Prenatal or early postnatal events predict infectious deaths in young adulthood in rural Africa. Int J Epidemiol. 1999; 28, 1088–1095.Google Scholar
12.Hult, M, Tornhammar, P, Ueda, P, et al. Hypertension, diabetes and overweight: looming legacies of the Biafran Famine. PLoS ONE. 2010; 5, e13582.Google Scholar
13.Godoy, R, Tanner, S, Reyes-García, V, et al. The effect of rainfall during gestation and early childhood on adult height in a foraging and horticultural society of the Bolivian Amazon. Am J Hum Biol. 2008; 20, 20–34.Google Scholar
14.Gurven, M, Kaplan, H, Winking, J, et al. Inflammation and infection do not promote arterial aging and cardiovascular disease risk factors among lean horticulturalists. PLoS ONE. 2009; 4, e6590.Google Scholar
15.Bengtsson, T, Lindstrom, M. Childhood misery and disease in later life: the effects on mortality in old age of hazards experienced in early life, Southern Sweden, 1760–1894. Pop Stud. 2000; 54, 263–277.Google Scholar
16.Gagnon, A, Mazan, R. Influences of early life conditions on old age mortality in old Québec. PSC Discussion Papers Series. 2006; (5), 1–19.Google Scholar
17.Campbell, C, Lee, J. Long-term mortality consequences of childhood family context in Liaoning, China, 1749–1909. Soc Sci Med. 2009; 68, 1641–1648.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
18.Preston, SH, Hill, ME, Drevenstedt, GL. Childhood conditions that predict survival to advanced ages among African–Americans. Soc Sci Med. 1998; 47, 1231–1246.Google Scholar
19.Almond, D, Currie, J. Human capital development before age five. NBER Working Paper No. 15827, 2010.Google Scholar
20.Davey Smith, G, Lynch, J. Life course approaches to socioeconomic differentials in health. In A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology (eds. Kuh D, Ben-Shlomo Y), 2004; pp. 77–115. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
21.Forsdahl, A. Living conditions in childhood and subsequent development of risk factors for arteriosclerotic heart disease. J Epidemiol Commun H. 1978; 49, 10–15.Google Scholar
22.Harper, S, Lynch, J, Davey Smith, G. Social determinants and the decline of cardiovascular diseases: understanding the links. Annu Rev Publ Health. 2011; 32, 39–69.Google Scholar
23.Lundberg, O. Childhood living conditions, health status, and social mobility: a contribution to the health selection debate. Eur Sociol Rev. 1991; 7, 149–162.Google Scholar
24.Wadsworth, M, Hardy, R, Paul, A, Marshall, S, Cole, T. Leg and trunk length at 43 years in relation to childhood health, diet and family circumstances: evidence from the 1946 national birth cohort. Int J Epidemiol. 2002; 31, 383–390.Google Scholar
25.Wadsworth, M, Kuh, D. Childhood influences on adult health: a review of recent work from the British 1946 national birth cohort study, the MRC National Survey of Health and Development. Paediatr Perinat Ep. 1997; 11, 2–20.Google Scholar
26.Almond, D, Currie, J. Killing me softly: the fetal origins hypothesis. J Econ Perspect. 2011; 25, 153–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
27.Barker, DJP. Mothers, Babies and Health in Later Life, 2nd edn, 1998. Churchill Livingstone: Edinburgh.Google Scholar
28.Case, A, Paxson, C. Causes and consequences of early-life health. Demography. 2010; 47(Suppl.), S65–S85.Google Scholar
29.Costa, DL. Becoming oldest-old: evidence from historical U.S. data. Genus. 2005; LXI, 125–161.Google Scholar
30.Doblhammer, G. The Late Life Legacy of Very Early Life, 2004. Springer: Berlin.Google Scholar
31.Finch, CE, Crimmins, EM. Inflammatory exposure and historical changes in human life-spans. Science. 2004; 305, 1736–1739.Google Scholar
32.Gluckman, E, Hanson, M. Developmental Origins of Health and Disease, 2006. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.Google Scholar
33.Gunnell, DJ, Davey Smith, G, Holly, JMP, Frankel, S. Leg length and risk of cancer in the Boyd Orr cohort. Brit Med J. 1998; 317, 1350–1351.Google Scholar
34.Hayward, MD, Gorman, BK. The long arm of childhood: the influence of early-life social conditions on men's mortality. Demography. 2004; 41, 87–107.Google Scholar
35.Kuh, D, Ben-Shlomo, Y, (eds.). A Life Course Approach to Chronic Disease Epidemiology, 2004. Oxford University Press: Oxford.Google Scholar
36.van den Berg, GJ, Doblhammer, G, Christensen, K. Exogenous determinants of early-life conditions, and mortality later in life. Soc Sci Med. 2009; 68, 1591–1598.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
37.Eriksson, JG, Kajantie, E, Osmond, C, Thornburg, K, Barker, DJP. Boys live dangerously in the womb. Am J Hum Biol. 2010; 22, 330–335.Google Scholar
38.Abbott, RD, White, LR, Ross, GW, et al. Height as a marker of childhood development and late-life cognitive function: the Honolulu–Asia aging study. Pediatrics. 1998; 102, 602–609.Google Scholar
39.Beeri, MS, Davidson, M, Silverman, JM, et al. Relationship between body height and dementia. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2005; 13, 116–123.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
40.Scrimshaw, NS. Interaction of Nutrition and Infection, 1968. World Health Organization: New York, NY.Google Scholar
41.Popkin, BM, Horton, S, Kim, S. The nutritional transition and diet-related chronic diseases in Asia: implications for prevention. Food Consumption and Nutrition Division Discussion Paper No. 105, 2001.Google Scholar
42.Coale, AJ, Banister, J. Five decades of missing females in China. Demography. 1994; 31, 459–479.Google Scholar
43.Pickles, A, Maughan, B, Wadsworth, M. Epidemiological Methods in Lifecourse Research, 2007. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. eScholarID:4d140.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
44.Wilkinson, R, Marmot, M, (eds.) Social Determinants of Health: The Solid Facts, 2nd edn, 2003. World Health Organization: Denmark.Google Scholar
45.Davey Smith, G, Hart, C, Blane, D, Hole, D. Adverse socioeconomic conditions in childhood and cause specific adult mortality: prospective observational study. Brit Med J. 1998; 316, 1631–1635.Google Scholar
46.Elo, IT, Martikainen, P, Myrskylä, M. Early life conditions and cause-specific mortality in Finland. Working paper 10-04, University of Pennsylvania Population Aging Research Center, 2010.Google Scholar
47.Kinsella, K, He, W. An Aging World: 2008. U.S. Census Bureau, International Population Reports, P95/09-1, 2009. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
48.Kinsella, K, Velkoff, V. An Aging World. US Bureau of the Census, 2001. US Government Printing Office: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
49.Murray, CJL, Lopez, AD, (eds.). Global Health Statistics: Global Burden of Disease and Injury Series (vol. 2), 1996. Harvard School of Public Health: Boston.Google Scholar
50.Amos, AF, McCarty, DJ, Zimmet, P. The rising global burden of diabetes and its complications: estimates and projections to the year 2010. Diabetic Med. 1997; 14(Suppl. 5), S1–S85.Google Scholar
51.King, H, Aubert, RE, Herman, WH. Global burden of diabetes, 1995–2025. Diabetes Care. 1998; 141, 1414–1431.Google Scholar
52.World Health Organization (WHO). Obesity: Preventing and Managing the Global Epidemic. Report of a WHO Consultation, 2000a. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
53.World Health Organization (WHO). The World Health Report 2000. Health Systems: Improving Performance, 2000b. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
54.Beaglehole, R, Yach, D. Globalisation and the prevention and control of non-communicable disease: the neglected chronic diseases of adults. Lancet. 2003; 362, 903–908.Google Scholar
55.Monteiro, CA, Conde, WL, Lu, B, Popkin, BM. Obesity and inequities in health in the developing world. Int J Obesity. 2004; 28, 1181–1186.Google Scholar
56.Klinsberg, B. América Latina: una región en riesgo, pobreza, inequidad e institucionalidad social [Latin America: A Region in Risk, Poverty, Inequity, and Social Institutionalism], 2000. Inter-American Development Bank: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
57.Barrientos, A. The changing face of pensions in Latin America: design and prospects of individual capitalization pension plans. Soc Policy Admin. 1997; 31, 336–353.Google Scholar
58.Mesa-Lago, C. Changing social security in Latin America: toward alleviating the costs of economic reform, 1994. Lynne Rienner Publishers Inc.: Boulder and London.Google Scholar
59.Bateson, P, Barker, D, Clutton-Brock, T, et al. Developmental plasticity and human health. Nature. 2004; 430, 419–421.Google Scholar
60.Palloni, A, McEniry, M, Wong, R, Peláez, M. The tide to come: elderly health in Latin America and the Caribbean. J Aging Health. 2006; 18, 180–206.Google Scholar
61.World Bank. How we Classify Countries, 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2012, from http://data.worldbank.org/about/country-classifications.Google Scholar
62.Crimmins, EM, Soldo, BJ, Kim, JK, Alley, D. Using anthropometric indicators for Mexicans in the United States and Mexico to understand the selection of migrants and the “Hispanic Paradox”. Soc Biol. 2005; 5, 164–177.Google Scholar
63.Kohler, IV, Soldo, BJ. Childhood predictors of late-life diabetes: the case of Mexico. Soc Biol. 2005; 52, 113–131.Google Scholar
64.Palloni, A, McEniry, M, Dávila, AL, García Gurucharri, A. The influence of early conditions on health status among elderly Puerto Ricans. Soc Biol. 2005; 52, 132–164.Google Scholar
65.Brenes, G. The effect of early life events on the burden of diabetes mellitus among Costa Rican elderly: estimates and projections. PhD Dissertation, 2008. University of Wisconsin, Madison.Google Scholar
66.McEniry, M, Palloni, A, Dávila, AL, García, GA. Early life exposure to poor nutrition and infectious diseases and its effects on the health of older Puerto Rican adults. J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2008; 63(Suppl. 6), S337–S348.Google Scholar
67.McEniry, M, Palloni, A. Early life exposures and the occurrence and timing of heart disease among the older adult Puerto Rican population. Demography. 2010; 47, 23–43.Google Scholar
68.McEniry, M. Infant mortality, season of birth and the health of older Puerto Rican adults. Soc Sci Med. 2011; 72, 1004–1015.Google Scholar
69.Monteverde, M, Norhonha, K, Palloni, A. Effect of early conditions on disability among elderly in Latin America and the Caribbean. Pop Stud. 2009; 63, 21–35.Google Scholar
70.Beltrán-Sánchez, H, Crimmins, EM, Teruel, GM, Thomas, D. Links between childhood and adult social circumstances and obesity and hypertension in the Mexican population. J Aging Health. 2011; 23, 1141–1165.Google Scholar
71.Schooling, CM, Jiang, C, Lam, TH, et al. Parental death during childhood and adult cardiovascular risk in a developing country: the Guangzhou Biobank Cohort Study. PLoS ONE. 2011; 6, e19675.Google Scholar
72.Yi, Z, Gu, D, Land, K. Healthy longevity at the oldest-old ages in China. Demography. 2007; 44, 497–518.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
73.Huang, C, Soldo, B, Elo, I. Do early-life conditions predict functional health status in adulthood? The case of Mexico. Soc Sci Med. 2011; 72, 100–107.Google Scholar
74.Wen, M, Gu, D. The effects of childhood, adult, and community socioeconomic conditions on health and mortality among older adults in China. Demography. 2011; 48, 153–181.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
75.Scazufca, M, Menezes, PR, Araya, R, et al. Risk factors across the life course and dementia in a Brazilian population: results from the Sao Paulo Ageing & Health Study (SPAH). Int J Epidemiol. 2008; 37, 879–890.Google Scholar
76.Zhang, ZX, Plassman, BL, Xu, Q, et al. Lifespan influences on mid- to late-life cognitive function in a Chinese birth cohort. Neurology. 2009; 73, 186–194.Google Scholar
77.Maurer, J. Height, education and later-life cognition in Latin America and the Caribbean. Econ Hum Biol. 2010; 8, 168–176.Google Scholar
78.Zhang, Z, Gu, D, Hayward, MD. Childhood nutritional deprivation and cognitive impairment among older Chinese people. Soc Sci Med. 2010; 71, 941–949.Google Scholar
79.Huang, C, Elo, IT. Mortality of the oldest old Chinese: the role of early-life nutritional status, socio-economic conditions, and sibling sex-composition. Pop Stud. 2009; 63, 7–20.Google Scholar
80.Brenes-Camacho, G, Palloni, A. Malaria survivors during early life, health at old age, and stroke mortality in Costa Rica. Prepared for the Seminar on Lifespan Extension and the Biology of Changing Cause-of-Death Profiles: Evolutionary and Epidemiological Perspectives. IUSSP Scientific Panel on Evolutionary Perspectives in Demography, Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 13–15 January 2011.Google Scholar
81.Rubin, D. Multiple Imputation for Nonresponse in Surveys, 1987. John Wiley & Sons: New York, NY.Google Scholar
82.Schmidt, I, Jorgensen, M, Michaelsen, K. Height of conscripts in Europe: Is postneonatal mortality a predictor? Ann Hum Biol. 1995; 22, 57–67.Google Scholar
83.Deaton, A. Height, health, and development. PNAS. 2007; 104, 13232–13237.Google Scholar
84.Mitchell, CO, Lipschitz, DA. Arm length measurement as an alternative to height in nutritional assessment of the elderly. J Parenter Enteral Nutr. 1982; 6, 226–229.Google Scholar
85.Kwok, T, Whitelaw, MN. The use of armspan in nutritional assessment of the elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc. 1991; 39, 492–496.Google Scholar
86.Jarvis, C. Physical Examination and Health Assessment, 2nd edn, 1996. W. B. Saunders: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
87.Brown, KJ, Feng, J, Knapp, TR. Is self-reported height or arm span a more accurate alternative measure of height? Clin Nurs Res. 2002; 11, 417–432.Google Scholar
88.Gavrilov, LA, Gavrilova, NS. Biodemography of exceptional longevity: early-life and mid-life predictors of human longevity. Biodemography Soc Biol. 2012; 58, 14–39.Google Scholar
89.Muñoz-Tuduri, M, García-Moro, C. Season of birth affects short- and long-term survival. Am J Phys Anthropol. 2008; 135, 462–468.Google Scholar
90.Mazumder, B, Almond, D, Park, K, Crimmins, EM, Finch, CE. Lingering prenatal effects of the 1918 influenza pandemic on cardiovascular disease. J Dev Orig Health Dis. 2009; 1, 26–34.Google Scholar
91.Prentice, AM, Cole, TJ. Seasonal changes in growth and energy status in the third world. Proc Nutr Soc. 1994; 53, 509–519.Google Scholar
92.Haas, SA. The long-term effects of poor childhood health. Demography. 2007; 44, 113–135.Google Scholar
93.Hauser, RM, Tsai, SL, Sewell, WH. A model of stratification with response error in social and psychological variables. Sociology of Education. 1983; 56, 20–46.Google Scholar
94.Campbell, C. Public health efforts in China before 1949 and their effects on mortality: the case of Beijing. Soc Sci Hist. 1997; 21, 179–218.Google Scholar
95.Katz, S, Akpom, CA. Index of ADL. Med Care. 1976; 14, 116–118.Google Scholar
96. Medical Outcomes StudyNagi, Saad Z. An epidemiology of disability among adults in the United States. The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society. 1976; 54, 439–467.Google Scholar
97.Folstein, MF, Folstein, SE, McHugh, PR. Mini-mental state: a practical method for grading the cognitive state of patients for the clinician. J Psychiatr Res. 1975; 12, 189–198.Google Scholar
98.Banks, J, Marmot, M, Oldfield, Z, Smith, J. Disease and disadvantage in the United States and in England. J Am Med Assoc. 2006; 295, 2037–2045.Google Scholar
99.Goldman, N, Weinstein, M, Chang, MCet al. 2000 Social Environment and Biomarkers of Aging Study in Taiwan (SEBAS). Working paper series 2003–08, 2003. Office of Population Research, Princeton University.Google Scholar
100.Almond, D, Bleakly, H, Ferrie, J, Mazumder, B, Rolf, K, Troesken, W. Healthy, wealthy, and wise? Physical, economic, & cognitive effects of early life conditions on later life outcomes in the US: 1915–2005. Presented at the National Poverty Center's Conference on The Long-run Impact of Early Life Events II, March 12–13, 2009, Ann Arbor, MI.Google Scholar
101.National Institute on Aging and US Department of State. Why Population Aging Matters: A Global Perspective, 2007. National Institute on Aging: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
102. National Research Council. Preparing for an Aging World: The Case for Cross-national Research. Panel on a Research Agenda and New Data for an Aging World, Committee on Population and Committee on National Statistics, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, 2001. National Academy Press, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
103.Crimmins, E, Kim, JK, Vasunilashorn, S. Biodemography: new approaches to understanding trends and differences in population health and mortality. Demography. 2010; 47(Suppl.), S41–S64.Google Scholar