Abstract
There is still limited understanding of the causal pathways underlying the observed association between exposures during fetal life and later health and disease in humans. Without better understanding we cannot estimate public health implications and assess the potential for intervention.
Study of twins should help us understand more about the role of factors shared by both twins versus factors affecting the individual fetus, the role of genetic factors, the role of placental factors, and which aspects or consequences of postnatal growth are associated with increased risk of later cardiovascular disease.
Generalisability of data from twin studies is open to question, but there is evidence that birth size — cardiovascular disease risk associations are similar in twins to those generally observed in singletons, suggesting that similar causal pathways are involved and study of twins will be informative.
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Morley, R., Dwyer, T., Carlin, J.B. (2006). Studies of Twins. In: Wintour, E.M., Owens, J.A. (eds) Early Life Origins of Health and Disease. Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, vol 573. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-32632-4_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-32632-4_3
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