The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHaD) hypothesis suggests that environmental exposures during critical stages of early development, particularly during fetal life and early childhood, can lead to long-term physiological and metabolic changes that affect health later in life. A growing number of studies suggest that early-life factors are associated with the development of cardiovascular (CV) diseases in adulthood. However, many investigations examining these early determinants do not explicitly refer to the DOHaD framework, or they report broader health outcomes rather than specific CV endpoints. Inclusion criteria: Studies involving individuals exposed to insults during early stages of life—defined as up to 9 years of age in humans and up to 30 days in rodents—were included, with outcomes assessed from 18 years and 60 days onward, respectively. The DOHaD concept was considered in the context of cardiovascular diseases. A systematic search was conducted in six electronic databases (Web of Science, MEDLINE via PubMed, EMBASE, Scopus, LILACS, and SciELO). The search strategy was developed using descriptors indexed in the Health Sciences Descriptors (DeCS) platform and relevant keywords identified in the literature, combined using the Boolean operators “AND” and “OR”. Studies published in English between 2015 and 2025 were considered eligible. Searches were conducted between December 2025 and January 2026. Records were imported into the Rayyan® platform for screening. After duplicate removal, studies were selected through title and abstract screening according to the predefined eligibility criteria. Data extraction and synthesis were subsequently performed to summarize the available evidence. The results showed that obesity and gestational diabetes, prematurity, and low birth weight, especially in animal models, were the main insults detected in the screening of full texts. Outcomes related to alterations in cardiovascular structure and function mainly included hypertension and blood pressure changes. These results support a consistent association between early-life aggressions and adverse cardiovascular outcomes, especially hypertension.
Lima et al. (Thu,) studied this question.