BMJ 1995;310:1468 (3 June)

Letters

Earlier published work supports the "Barker hypothesis"

EDITOR,--Nigel Paneth and Mervyn Susser discuss the fetal and early life origin of coronary heart disease, referring to the "Barker hypothesis."1 We acknowledge the important contributions of Barker and his coworkers. More strongly than previous authors, they have pinpointed the relevance of fetal nourishment to later coronary risk. Readers of the BMJ should also be aware, however, of the earlier publications by Anders Forsdahl of the University of Tromso. In 1973, in a paper published in Norwegian with an English summary, he advanced "the theory that extremely poor social conditions during childhood and adolescence can be considered as risk factors for cardiovascular diseases."2 This was more than 10 years before the paper by Barker and Osmond in 1986.3 Since 1977 Forsdahl has published several studies supporting his hypothesis in international journals.4 5 6

Thus we believe that if one person alone is to be given the honour for the theory that experiences . . . [Full text of this article]


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Relevant Article

Early origin of coronary heart disease (the "Barker hypothesis")
Nigel Paneth and Mervyn Susser
BMJ 1995 310: 411-412. [Extract] [Full Text]




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