Early Life Events

Question 1

What challenges could the fetus face in utero that might have lasting impact on its health?

Answer 1

1. Infection
2. Maternal nutrition
3. Maternal illness
4. Maternal medication
5. Environmental factors

Question 2

How does Nature affect long term health and risk of disease?

Answer 2

• Genetics
• Epigenetics
• Perinatal Influences

Question 3

How does Nurture affect long term health and risk of disease?

Answer 3

1. Environment
2. Family, Neighbourhood, 3. School
3. Nutrition
4. Social - behaviours seen – substance use, care giver behaviour
5. Health Provisions

Question 4

What are the conclusions with CAD in the Barker Hypothesis?

Answer 4

1. adults who had a coronary event had been small at birth and thin at two years of age
2. thereafter put on weight rapidly
3. The risk of coronary events was more strongly related to the tempo of childhood gain in BMI than to the BMI attained at any particular age of childhood.

Question 5

What is the Barker hypothesis summarised?

Answer 5

1. Undernutrition in utero and over nutrition as a child

2. Leads to increased risk of /metabolic syndrome’ and therefore leads to increased risk of cardiovascular events

Question 6

What are epigenetic changes in the Barker hypothesis?

Answer 6

idea of programming in utero leads to epigenetic changes

Question 7

When are there associations between early environmental exposure and?

Answer 7

• Cardio-vascular disease
• Type 2 diabetes
• Lung disease
• Cancer risk
• Neurological, special sense and intellectual development
• Allergic and auto-immune diseases

Question 8

What are the aims of the NHS healthy child programme?

Answer 8

Aims to prevent disease and promote good health

• universal
• reduce health inequalities

Question 9

What is included in the NHS healthy child programme?

Answer 9

• Health Promotion (Obesity prevention is a key aspect)
• Supporting care giving and care givers
• Screening
• Immunisation
• Identification of high-risk families/ individuals for additional support
• Signposting
• accident prevention
• dental hygiene

Question 10

What is the screening in early childhood screening?

Answer 10

1. Newborn Check
2. Newborn Hearing Screening
3. Blood spot check

Question 11

What are the fundamental of a good screening test?

Answer 11

The Disease it is screening for

1. should be able to identified early/before critical point
2. treatable
3. prevent/reduce morbidity/mortality
4. Acceptable/easy to administer
5. Cost effective
6. Reproducible and accurate results