Cohort studies are rare in India over the past several decades. There has been concerted effort by a group of investigators in India in the past two decades to set up or follow existing cohort studies (fixed) to understand how developmental factors are associated with adult function and diseases. Life course epidemiology is equally interested in the maintenance of function or its decline post maturity and the factors across the whole of life that determine the adult diseases (e.g chronic diseases in adulthood) or the markers of ageing (e.g physical, ocular, cognition and biological ageing factors). We, as part of Vellore birth cohort study, have focused into two broadly defined areas of life course epidemiologic research:
Early growth and Adult Chronic Diseases
Determining factors that are associated with adult chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors, considering factors that are specific to early growth (including birth, childhood and adolescence), as well as related to maternal health. Statistical analyses have involved models useful in determining the adult diseases from life course perspectives.
Early Growth and Markers of Ageing
Evaluating factors that are predictive of early markers of ageing which includes physical capabilities, ocular and biological ageing factors. This work evaluates developing models, for example, whether poor growth in childhood is predictive of early ageing in a cohort of individuals followed from birth to young adulthood.
