Life course epidemiology: recognising the importance of adolescence

In studies from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the 1946 British Birth Cohort), it has been demonstrated that pubertal timing influenced BMI and blood pressure in midlife in men. 5 Similarly, in the 1958 National Child Development Study, pubertal timing was associated with BMI cha... Full description

In studies from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the 1946 British Birth Cohort), it has been demonstrated that pubertal timing influenced BMI and blood pressure in midlife in men. 5 Similarly, in the 1958 National Child Development Study, pubertal timing was associated with BMI change from childhood to adulthood. 6 In a recent systematic review of these and other studies, there was substantial longitudinal evidence that early puberty increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a range of negative cardiometabolic outcomes in addition to obesity. 7 This risk may operate in part through programming of metabolic factors such as insulin-like growth factor 1 8 as well as directly through obesity. 7 There is evidence that pubertal timing or related pubertal weight gain may influence the prevalence and presentation of a wide range of other adverse outcomes, from common health problems such as asthma, epilepsy, chronic kidney disease, thyroid dysfunction, lean to fat mass ratios and diabetes prevalence to pain perception and mental health problems such as depression, eating disorders and schizophrenia. 2 Other evidence that adolescence may be a critical period in human development comes from observations that 75% of life-time mental health disorders have their onset before age 25 years, with the peak age of onset for many being during adolescence. 9 This is likely to be related to dramatic brain development during the second decade of life.