Influences of Prenatal Environments on Later Adult Health Outcomes - Essay Example

Couse: Influences of Prenatal Environments on Later Adult Health Outcomes Introduction There are a number of health issues that are seenlater in adults that can be prevented by their prior interventions, and more especially in early childhood. Some of these adult life health outcomes closely linked to poor childhood (early life) growth include such as cardiovascular, respiratory function, cognitive function, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, schizophrenia, psychological function and susceptibility to stress, diabetes, coronary heart disease, atopic disease, breast cancer and early adulthood serum cholesterol (Wadsworth and Butterworth 32). It is worth noting that there is a distinct relationship between prenatal exposures to famine and the abovementioned adult health issues. Markedly, adverse fetal environments make sizeable contributions to the numerous aspects of cardiovascular risk in the life of an adult. Nonetheless, the resultants effects are a function of its timing during gestation (Wadsworth and Butterworth 32). This can be better evidenced by those individuals who happen to have been born during the Dutch famine (between 1944 and 1945). A great percentage of these individuals are young and this might be used as a clear explanation as to why prenatal exposure yield to various adult health complication. Notably, prenatal environments impact on later adult health outcomes. These are discussed as under. Influences of Prenatal and Early Childhood Environment on Later Life Many a times, low weight at birth has been reported. It is believed that this low weight is as a result of poor delivery of nutrients, as well as oxygen to the fetus. This delivery condition is intimately related to both the health and the environment of the mother and her subsequent access to appropriate foods. The same may also be as a result of the risk factors that the mother exposes herself to during her pregnancy (Wadsworth and Butterworth 33). Some of these risk factors may include such as smoking, diet, exercise, excessive intake of alcohol, experiences of infections or atmospheric pollution. Besides the health of the mother during pregnancy, birth weight is also a function of genetic factors. Moreover, it has often been contended that the health of a mother and the opportunity for growth, both as a child and an adolescent is closely tied to the growth of the fetus in the mother’s offspring via her development of risk of hypertension and of increased body mass (Wadsworth and Butterworth 34). In addition, there are a number of socially arbitrated factors which unsympathetically affect the growth before birth as well as in infancy. These include such as maternal smoking, poverty, excess intake of alcohol, poor and deficient diets among mothers and babies and drug abuse. Such factors affecting the health of the pregnant mother ordinarily affect the child not only in the prenatal stages of growth and development, but also in the postnatal environment and in their infancy (Wadsworth and Butterworth 34). For instance, dietary knowledge, dietary availability and maternal smoking adversely affect the infant during the vivacious period of pre-pubertal growth. In addition, it has been evidenced that in the event that poor growth is borne during this growth and developmental stage, in collaboration with unsympathetic socioeconomic circumstances play a pivotal role in leading to long-term adult health risks. A good example for this is an individual becoming overweight. Besides, deficient infant feeding is in the offing of leading to more adverse conditions on the child’s cognitive development and on respiratory health (Wadsworth and Butterworth 35). Interplay Between Early Environmental and Adult Health In better understanding the association existing between social circumstances and physical health and early life development, it may be vital knowing the interaction between the child’s physical endowment at birth and the social environment. Alternatively, the link between poor growth in early life and adult health problems may be resulting from the adverse effects of the accumulation and subsequent interaction of the earlier mentioned risk factors. Factually, this latter relationship is as a result of poor growth borne of considerably poor socioeconomic circumstances (Wadsworth and Butterworth 35). Illustratively, poor socioeconomic circumstances in early life are traditionally characterized with a heightened probability of ensuing poor health-related habits (like smoking), poor educational attainment, poor diet in adulthood, overweight and obesity and low income (Wadsworth and Butterworth 37). Additionally, some of the adverse circumstance in an individual’s early life – such as an infectious illness- call for an extra adverse challenge in adulthood, let say infection or obesity, for purposes of pushing the organism into ill health. This is so because the organism has already been exposed to adverse early life development exposures. Adverse effects of poor growth in early life may prove to be hardly inevitable especially in the event that following pregnancy, the accumulation of the risk hardly continues in either biological or socioeconomic forms (Wadsworth and Butterworth 38). Implication The chances of both adverse mental and behavioral health outcomes following emotionally distressing experiences as well as maltreatment in childhood is greatly heightened by the contemporaneous poor socioeconomic childhood circumstance. Poor physical care, overcrowding, poor mothering, family emotional instability and welfare dependence are among the adult depressive disorders, chiefly among these is depression among women in their early adulthood. A cumulative process of the same is also closely related to suicidal ideation and in late adolescence dripping to early adulthood. Poor educational accomplishment is on the other hand a probable coronary of behavior and temperament complications in childhood (Wadsworth and Butterworth 43). The same has also heightened the peril of adult low-esteem, poor personal relations and low economic capability. All the above enlisted are allied to adult behavioral difficulties. Furthermore, poor educational achievement is equally an increased risk resulting from the experience of parental separation (Wadsworth and Butterworth 46). The amassed impact of confrontational emotional experiences, in collaboration with poor socioeconomic state of affairs in childhood, is apparent able to be gauged childhood risk. Long-term implications of these childhood risks fall under four categories, psychological, biological, psychosocial and social models. Psychologically, childhood physical and psychosomatic insults are in the offing of damaging emotional regulation, quality of relationships with other individuals, attachment security and the self-worth concept (Wadsworth and Butterworth 47). This psychological explanation entails the concept of a sensitive period, occurring between the ages of six and eight months, the age when children are known to develop their essential attachment to their parents as well as between the 12th and 13th month- which is a crucial stage for linguistic and intellectual development. The disruption of the above processes at the sensitive periods and at later childhood times may be an enduring sources of risk since the child attains a maladaptive rejoinder style which impacts on the learning and response to others (Wadsworth and Butterworth 48). Psychosocially, response style to antagonistic experience is likely to reduce the self-esteem and self-control of the child. Additionally, this has consequent risks to the social attainment and status later in life like employment, education, coping with life’s adverse events and personal rapports. In puberty, depression and anxiety are common, but this affects girls more than the boys. Resultantly, this may kick off social susceptibility that is patent in such risks as an increased propensity to early pregnancies and higher risks of poor interpersonal relations and relatively lower educational achievement, greater risks of depressive illnesses and lower occupational prospects (Wadsworth and Butterworth 49). The social explanations put forward that low educational achievement; poor emotional self-management and higher unemployment risk have adversative impacts on an individual’s personal socioeconomic attainment, life chances and self-esteem. On the other hand, in biological terms, there is likely adaptation of emotional response style for purposes of handling unbearable emotional pressure experienced during an individual’s developmental period (Wadsworth and Butterworth 50). Following the above discussed implication, there is a hurried need to make improvements in the physical health in early life. These policies ought to endow children with good health as well as educational opportunities. This will ensure that the well-being of the society is improved. However, coming up with policies aimed at reducing ill health and the various risks to health in early life might prove to be complex. This makes persuading the governments that had invested in the change via various strategies (Wadsworth and Butterworth 50). Conclusion From the above discussion, it is evident that the interaction existing between a child’s development and the social environment during the developmental years of plasticity crafts the primary benefaction of both physical and mental health for later life (Wadsworth and Butterworth 51). The social factors that have been presented to be the most imperative during the early developmental years are those which do condition the child’s and the mother’s physical and emotional environment. Moreover, these factors are closely associated with physical growth and emotional support. Works Cited Wadsworth, Michael and Butterworth, Suzie. Early Life, In Social Determinants of Health, ed. Michael G. Marmot and Richard G. Wilkinson. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005, 31-53. Read More