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Discuss The Concept Of Developmental Programming Essay

Decent Essays

Describe the concept of ‘developmental programming’ and discuss why it is of increasing importance to population health.

INTRODUCTION:
This essay will describe the concept of developmental programming and the importance of it in population health. It will also provide recommendations on how the New Zealand health care system can incorporate the advice put forward from developmental programming into and neonatal prenatal care services. It is suggested that illnesses such as coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes and many other chronic diseases are unnecessary, and resulted from changing patterns in human development (Barker, 2012).

DEVELOPMENTAL PROGRAMMING

The concept:
Developmental programming (figure 1) refers to the idea that adverse impacts on the foetal and neonatal environments can change the gene expression during the development and construction of major organs and tissue (Langely-evans, 2006). These changes could result in in many health consequences in adulthood, including chronic disease such as cardiovascular disease (Langely-evans, 2006).

Figure 1: The developmental programming hypothesis (Ozanne & Constância,2007)

History:
Epidemiologist, David Barker identified the concept of developmental programming using evidence derived from many historical studies. Barker observed in a British study that the “differences in rates of death from coronary heart disease in parts of England and Wales paralleled previous differences in death rates among new born

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