ArticleEvolution, medicine, and public health2016
Maternal investment, life-history strategy of the offspring and adult chronic disease risk in South Asian women in the UK.
Article in Evolution, medicine, and public health, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 37 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prenatal stress accelerates offspring growth to compensate for reduced maternal investment across mammals.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2017Pooled it
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- Natural selection and human adiposity: crafty genotype, thrifty phenotype.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- The Long-Term Consequences of Early Life Exposure to Tsunami and Conflict on Adolescents in Sri Lanka.Asia-Pacific journal of public health · 2023Article
- How Is Context Addressed in Growth Monitoring? A Comparison of the Tanzanian, Indian, and Dutch Manuals.Current developments in nutrition · 2022Article
- Maternal investment, life-history trajectory of the off-spring and cardiovascular disease risk in Emirati females in the United Arab Emirates.BMC public health · 2021Article
- Article
- Life History Transitions at the Origins of Agriculture: A Model for Understanding How Niche Construction Impacts Human Growth, Demography and Health.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Review
- The diabesity epidemic in the light of evolution: insights from the capacity-load model.Diabetologia · 2019Review
- Developmental plasticity as adaptation: adjusting to the external environment under the imprint of maternal capital.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Review
- Low Maternal Capital Predicts Life History Trade-Offs in Daughters: Why Adverse Outcomes Cluster in Individuals.Frontiers in public health · 2019Article
- Towards a capability approach to child growth: A theoretical framework.Maternal & child nutrition · 2018Review
- Life history trade-offs and the partitioning of maternal investment: Implications for health of mothers and offspring.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Review
- Maternal investment, maturational rate of the offspring and mechanical competence of the adult female skeleton.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2018Article
- Body composition and susceptibility to type 2 diabetes: an evolutionary perspective.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2017Review
- Maternal pelvic dimensions and neonatal size: Implications for growth plasticity in early life as adaptation.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2017Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND
objectivesPatterns of development predict cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, and ethnic differences therein, but it remains unclear why apparently 'adaptive plasticity' in early life should generate health costs in later life. We hypothesized that offspring receiving low maternal investment during fetal life, the primary period of organogenesis, should predict a shorter reproductive career and develop a fast life-history strategy, prioritizing reproduction over growth and homeostatic maintenance. METHODOLOGY: We studied 58 young adult South Asian women living in the UK, a group with high susceptibility to CVD. We obtained gestational age, birth weight (BW) and menarcheal age by recall and measured anthropometry, body composition, resting metabolic rate (RMR) and blood pressure (BP).
resultsBW and gestational age were inversely associated with menarcheal age, indicating that lower maternal investment is associated with faster maturation. Menarcheal age was positively associated with height but inversely with adiposity, indicating that rapid maturation prioritizes lipid stores over somatic growth. BW was inversely associated with BP, whereas adiposity was positively associated, indicating that lower maternal investment reduces BP homeostasis. BW was positively associated with RMR, whereas menarche was inversely associated, indicating that maternal investment influences adult metabolism. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Supporting our hypothesis, low maternal investment promoted faster life histories, demonstrated by earlier menarche, reduced growth and elevated adiposity. These traits were associated with poorer BP regulation. This is the first study demonstrating strategic adjustment of the balance between reproduction and metabolic health in response to the level of maternal investment during fetal life.
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