1. Increasing the quality of life from womb to grave: the importance of pregnancy and birth cohorts.
- Author
-
Kaplan BJ, Leung BM, Giesbrecht GF, Field CJ, Bernier FP, Tough S, Cui X, and Dewey D
- Subjects
- Alberta, Canada, Environmental Exposure, Epigenomics methods, Female, Humans, Maternal Welfare, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Aging, Cohort Studies, Population Surveillance methods, Quality of Life
- Abstract
Epigenetics is revealing how "nature is nurtured", with environmental factors such as nutrition, environmental neurotoxicants, and psychological stress influencing DNA expression. In this current opinion paper, we argue that understanding the dynamic interplay between the genome acquired at conception and environmental exposures throughout life requires pregnancy and birth cohorts, and that greater Canadian national commitment to the infrastructure needed for sustaining such cohorts is warranted. We present a framework that is now being implemented in Alberta.
- Published
- 2013
- Full Text
- View/download PDF