Developmental Origins of Chronic Disease: Is Prevention Just Around the Corner?

Date:

Tuesday, 5 November 2019

Time:

1.00pm – 2.00pm

Venue:

Seminar Room 2, Level 8
Tahir Foundation Building (MD1)
Saw Swee Hock School of Public Health
National University of Singapore
12 Science Drive 2, S(117549)

Synopsis:

Professor Kramer will review the theory and evidence behind the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD). Much of his focus will be on life-course epidemiology, including appropriate statistical methods for analyzing associations between growth and later cardio-metabolic outcomes with increasing age (fetal, infant, early and later childhood). He will demonstrate how changes in rate of growth with age affect the interpretation of those associations, and how to identify “sensitive” periods of the life course during which the magnitude of those associations is larger. He will conclude by discussing the implications of the evidence for preventing chronic cardio-metabolic disease.

About the speaker:

Dr Michael S Kramer is James McGill Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McGill University Faculty of Medicine, and Director of the Centre for Outcomes Research and Evaluation at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre. He has been a National Health Research Scholar and National Health Research Scientist of Health Canada’s National Health Research and Development Program (NHRDP), a Chercheur-boursier senior (senior research scientist) of the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRSQ), and a Distinguished Scientist of the Medical Research Council (MRC) and Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He has been principal investigator on several large, multicentre epidemiologic studies and randomized trials in maternal and child health. A member of four expert committees of the U.S. Institute of Medicine and a recent committee of the Council of Canadian Academies, in 1997-98 Dr. Kramer served as President of the Society of Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research. From 1995-2001, he chaired the Steering Committee of the Canadian Perinatal Surveillance System. He served as Scientific Director of CIHR’s Institute of Human Development and Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH) from 2003 to 2011. He has received operating grant support from NHRDP, MRC, CIHR, NIH, FRSQ, and the March of Dimes. In 2011, Dr. Kramer was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in the Life Sciences Division of the Academy of Science. In 2016, he received the American College of Epidemiology’s Abraham Lilienfeld Award for Overall Excellence in Epidemiology—only the third Canadian ever to have won this prestigious award.

Dr Kramer has authored or co-authored 20 books and monographs and has published over 500 original articles. He was recently cited as among the most impactful 0.01% of the world’s researchers across all scientific fields. His systematic review of the evidence on the optimal duration of exclusive breastfeeding led directly to new infant feeding recommendations by WHO and the World Health Assembly in 2001. His research on trends in perinatal population health contributed to recent recommendations to reduce labour induction and pre-labour caesarean delivery before 39 completed weeks, resulting in a decline in preterm and early term birth in Canada and the U.S. His recent work on growth trajectories in infants and children has led to a refocus on the post-infancy period as key for developing interventions to prevent obesity and cardiometabolic disease later in life.