SynthesisPloS one2018
Associations between body size, nutrition and socioeconomic position in early life and the epigenome: A systematic review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Animal and plant protein intake during infancy and childhood DNA methylation: a meta-analysis in the NutriPROGRAM consortium.Epigenetics · 2024Pooled it
- Choline, a nexus for neurocognitive nutrients: A narrative review.Nutrition research (New York, N.Y.) · 2026Review
- The Role of Socioeconomic Determinants in Children's Health.Portuguese journal of public health · 2025Article
- Prenatal Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Epigenetic Alterations at Birth Among Children Born to White British and Pakistani Mothers in the Born in Bradford Study.Epigenetics · 2022Article
- Food Security and Nutrition as the Neglected Missing Links in Cultural Evolution: The Role of the Sociotype.Rambam Maimonides medical journal · 2022Review
- Potential epigenetic mechanisms in psychotherapy: a pilot study on DNA methylation and mentalization change in borderline personality disorder.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Article
- A Role for Data Science in Precision Nutrition and Early Brain Development.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Review
- Loss of Imprinting in Human Placentas Is Widespread, Coordinated, and Predicts Birth Phenotypes.Molecular biology and evolution · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBody size, nutrition and socioeconomic position (SEP) in early life have been associated with a wide range of long-term health effects. Epigenetics is one possible mechanism through which these early life exposures can impact later life health. We conducted a systematic review examining the observational evidence for the impact of body size, nutrition and SEP in early life on the epigenome in humans.
methodsThis systematic review is registered with the PROSPERO database (registration number: CRD42016050193). Three datasets were simultaneously searched using Ovid and the resulting studies were evaluated by at least two independent reviewers. Studies measuring epigenetic markers either at the same time as, or after, the early life exposure and have a measure of body size, nutrition or SEP in early life (up to 12 years), written in English and from a community-dwelling participants were included.
resultsWe identified 90 eligible studies. Seventeen of these papers examined more than one early life exposure of interest. Fifty six papers examined body size, 37 nutrition and 17 SEP. All of the included papers examined DNA methylation (DNAm) as the epigenetic marker. Overall there was no strong evidence for a consistent association between these early life variables in DNAm which may be due to the heterogeneous study designs, data collection methods and statistical analyses.
conclusionsDespite these inconclusive results, the hypothesis that the early life environment can impact DNAm, potentially persisting into adult life, was supported by some studies and warrants further investigation. We provide recommendations for future studies.
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Registered trials
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