Childhood conditions and late‐life health: Introduction

Many areas of scientific investigation are increasingly focused on the role of early life experiences on late-life health (Kuh and Ben-Shlomo, 1997). A number of physiological links between early and late life have been proposed. Barker and colleagues were responsible for bringing the fetal origins hypothesis to widespread recognition in the literature. This hypothesis emphasizes the role of mother's nutritional status as a key mechanism linking fetal and early childhood conditions to organ development and subsequent onset of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems (Barker, 1998). Additional mechanisms linking early and later life have been suggested by other researchers. Davey Smith and colleagues suggested that early bouts of diarrhea and dehydration result in later life hypertension (Davey Smith et al., 2006; Lawlor et al., 2006). Finch and Crimmins (2004) suggested that high levels of inflammation through out early life promote earlier vascular aging and the onset of chronic conditions linked to aging. Biomedical scientists have provided evidence of the fact that vascular deterioration that is eventually related to the development of the diseases of old age begins in the fetus and progresses through