Developmental Origins of Health and Disease

Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (abbreviated DOHaD) is an approach to medical research emphasizing the role of prenatal and perinatal exposure to environmental factors, such as undernutrition, in determining the development of human diseases in adulthood. This approach includes an emphasis on epigenetic causes of adult chronic diseases, including the potential for such environmental causes to influence disease risk across generations.
Origin.
The DOHaD approach originated in studies by David Barker and his colleagues, which showed a strong relationship between infant mortality rates from 1921 to 1925 and ischemic heart disease rates from 1968 to 1978. This led to the fetal origins hypothesis of the origins of adult diseases, which proposed that this relationship was caused by differences in early life nutrition. This in turn led to greater interest in the roles of developmental plasticity and early life environmental exposures in adult disease. The World Congress on Fetal Origins of Adult Disease held two meetings – one in 2001 and the other in 2003 – summarizing then-new research in these areas. This congress later evolved into the International Society for Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.