Mothers, Babies, and Disease in Later Life

D J P Barker BMJ Publishing Group, £29.95, pp 180 ISBN 0 7279 0835 9 Before the early part of this century, clinical coronary heart disease was a rarity. By the 1950s, however, the developed countries of the Western world were experiencing an epidemic. Initially this epidemic spawned population based studies, such as the Framingham study, aimed at identifying risk factors for coronary heart disease that are amenable to prevention strategies among susceptible adults. In the past couple of decades, however, it has become apparent that prevention of heart disease might be more effective if started in childhood and adolescence, when the precursors of adult hypertension and atherosclerosis are apparent and lifestyle habits are formed. Now comes a new paradigm: the precursors of coronary heart disease and of other adult chronic diseases, and thus the potential …