Dissertation Research: Birth Weight, Culture Change, and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in Filipino Adolescents

最近的研究表明，产前营养不良，反映在低出生体重，永久性地使胎儿的新陈代谢在低营养水平下运作，增加了以后生活中肥胖、高血压和心血管疾病（CVD）的风险。尽管编程假说可以帮助解释目前这些疾病在发展中国家的流行，在这些国家，低出生体重是常见的，但很少在美国或欧洲以外的国家进行研究。本研究旨在评估生活在菲律宾宿务大都会的菲律宾青少年出生体重与标准心血管疾病危险因素之间的关系。除了与宿务纵向健康和营养调查合作外，还将对随机选择的400多名出生体重低和高的人测量血压、肥胖和胆固醇。出生体重数据将与当前饮食、活动和终生社会经济变化的数据相辅相成，以探索在这一现代化人群中心血管疾病危险因素表达的产前和产后因素之间的相互作用。本研究的重要意义在于扩展了跨文化规划假说的评估，从新的发展角度探讨了文化变迁与健康的问题，并可能为营养适应和人类适应提供新的见解。

Recent research suggests that prenatal undernutrition, reflected in low birth weight, permanently programs the metabolism of the fetus to function at low levels of nutritional resources, increasing the risk for obesity, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease (CVD) later in life. Although the programming hypothesis could help explain the current epidemic rise of these diseases in developing nations, where low birth weight is common, it has rarely been examined outside the US or Europe. This study proposes to assess relationships between birth weight and standard CVD risk factors in Filipino adolescents living in metropolitan Cebu, the Phillipines. In addition to collaboration with the Cebu Longitudinal Health and Nutrition Survey, blood pressure, adiposity, and cholesterol will be measured in over 400 randomly-selected low and high-birth weight individuals. Birth weight data will be complimented by data on current diet, activity, and lifetime socioeconomic change to explore the interactions between pre- and postnatal factors in the expression of CVD risk factors in this modernizing population. This study is significant in that it expands assessment of the programming hypothesis cross-culturally, approaches the problem of culture change and health from a novel developmental perspective, and may provide insights into nutritional adaptation and human adaptability.