Developmental origins of cardiometabolic health in twins

Deborah Ashtree,  Bsc (Genetics), Msc (Epidemiology)

Supervisors: Dr Katrina Scurrah and Prof Jeff Craig

Cardiometabolic diseases are the leading cause of death and disability worldwide and have origins in early life. Unique insights into the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) can be obtained from twin studies, because confounding is reduced due to matching. My PhD project has sought to better understand the DOHaD using a twin design, by carefully and comprehensively exploring associations of gestational and birth exposures with childhood markers of cardiometabolic health. After appropriately adjusting for gestational age, I found associations of maternal gestational weight gain, nutrition during pregnancy, and birthweight with childhood anthropometric measures. These results showed that many early-life exposures are associated with later-life health in twins, and may have implications for current twin pregnancy guidelines, early identification of individuals at risk of cardiometabolic diseases, and for future research.