Early Life Influences and Type-2 Diabetes – A Review

Abstract

Early life factors encompassing parental, foetal and postnatal characteristics, have an important influence on individual disease risk. Of particular importance is the role of maternal lifetime nutrition and metabolic reserves, and the impact on offspring birth outcomes. Birth weight, in turn, affects disease risk in later life. Being born small and showing rapid weight gain during childhood are especially important risk determinants for impaired glucose tolerance, higher blood pressure, dyslipidaemia, overweight and obesity in later life. Postnatal growth patterns, socio-environmental factors and genetic influences thus act in concert to increase the predilection for chronic diseases, including type-2 diabetes.

Development of a national childhood obesogenic environment index in the United States: differences by region and rurality

“…Within the last three decades, child obesity rates have more than tripled, such that approximately 17% of children aged 2 to 19 years are obese and 32% are overweight or obese [3]. The consequences of childhood obesity can be severe and long-lasting, as obese children have an increased risk for high blood pressure, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes, asthma, sleep apnea, and fatty liver disease [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Further, obese children are more likely to become obese adults, [2,9] and obese adults are at an increased risk for morbidity from hypertension, stroke, and some cancers [10,11].…”