Long-Term Consequences of Early Environment Growth, Development and the Lifespan Developmental Perspective

About this book

The early environment in which we grow up has profound, long lasting and often irreversible consequences for us throughout our lives. Stresses due to under nutrition in early childhood can mean that in adulthood individuals are smaller, more prone to disease and have a shorter life expectancy than those with normal diets. Disease and poor living conditions in infancy and childhood also have profound implications in adulthood.

Whilst environmental effects on human growth and development are well documented, the long-term consequences due to processes taking place at the early stages of growth and development have only in past years become a focus of intense study. In this volume, first published in 1996, leading researchers in nutrition, epidemiology, human biology, anthropology and physiology bring together a uniquely accessible source of information on this fascinating topic.

Contents

1. Introduction: growth, development and the lifespan developmental perspective S. J. Ulijaszek and C. J. K. Henry; 2. Human growth and development from an evolutionary perspective B. Bogin; 3. Long-term consequences of early environments on human growth: a developmental perspective S. J. Ulijaszek; 4. Biosocial determinants of sex ratios: survivorship, selection, and socialisation in the early environment C. M. Worthman; 5. Antenatal growth and birth factors and their relationships to child growth N. Cameron; 6. The effect of early nutrition on later growth M. H. N. Golden; 7. Influence of under-nutrition in early life on growth, body composition and metabolic competence S. A. Wootton and A. A. Jackson; 8. Early environment and later nutritional needs C. J. K. Henry; 9. Ontogeny of human taste and smell preferences and their implications for food selection D. J. Mela and S. Catt; 10. The origins of coronary heart disease in early life D. J. P. Barker; 11. Early life stresses and adult health: insights from dental enamel development A. H. Goodman; 12. The childhood environment and the development of sexuality N. P. M. Richards; 13. Possible relationships between the onset of puberty and female fertility L. Rosetta; 14. Early environment, long latency and slow progression of late onset neurodegenerative disorders R. M. Garruto; Index.

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