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Framing Fetal and Early Life Exposome Within Epidemiology

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Unraveling the Exposome

Abstract

The time periods that influence fetal and early life development are identified in this chapter as key windows of susceptibility to exposures and critical developmental stages of preconception, and the prenatal, perinatal, and postnatal periods. We highlight in this chapter these key developmental windows that characterize the fetal and early life exposome, and present a review of studies that have identified fetal and early life external and internal domains of the exposome. We also present a discussion of issues in exposome study design, including choice of biological samples and statistical complexities, specific to the key developmental times of fetal and early life. While notable studies and consortia have been established to investigate the exposome during the times of fetal development and early life, we argue that future exposome research must expand to incorporate the preconception period, build upon the existing and large body of knowledge of reproductive and peri/pre-natal epidemiological methods and study design, and utilize methods of causal inference. Collectively, this will aid in strengthening both the internal and external validity of our studies, and in the identification of potential causal mechanisms underlying many preventable diseases. Such advancements will lead to better risk assessments and potential policy and medical interventions.

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  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College, London, UK

    Jessica E. Laine & Oliver Robinson

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  1. Jessica E. Laine
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  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, MRC-PHE Centre for Environment and Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, London, UK

    Sonia Dagnino

  2. The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Agilent Technologies, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Anthony Macherone

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Laine, J.E., Robinson, O. (2019). Framing Fetal and Early Life Exposome Within Epidemiology. In: Dagnino, S., Macherone, A. (eds) Unraveling the Exposome. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89321-1_4

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