The consequences of early life disease exposure
: digitisation, new data, and empirical analyses

Student thesis: Doctoral ThesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Abstract

This thesis explores whether early life exposure to disease has long-term consequences for one’s health and economic outcomes, measured in older age. It builds upon the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease hypothesis (DOHaD), which suggests that adverse early life circumstances can contribute to long-lasting, irreversible effects on one’s health and well-being in older age. Research investigating developmental origins requires both detailed data on early life circumstances and later-life outcomes, which can be challenging to undertake.
In this interdisciplinary thesis, we expanded the literature with new research, software, and data. Chapter 2 shows ArchiveOCR: a new custom-coded software solution to digitising historical tables and its first use case of digitisation of 40,000 tables of weekly regional disease notifications. Chapter 3 details WeightGIS, and how it was implemented in the construction of a time-invariant 1931-1971 district structure for England and Wales. Chapter 4 contains a large new historical database on 20th Century England and Wales using the methods within Chapter one and two.
The data was then utilised in two research chapters. Chapter 5 shows that UK Biobank participants who experienced increased exposure to scarlet fever had a higher risk of later-life heart disease and declined fluid intelligence. Finally, chapter 6 found UK Biobank participants with high genetic risk to asthma were at less risk of developing asthma in later-life if exposed to scarlet fever or pertussis in early life, but those with moderate risk had no associated decline in risk.
Date of Award27 Sept 2022
Original languageEnglish
Awarding Institution
  • University of Bristol
SponsorsGW4 BioMed MRC DTP & NORFACE
SupervisorStephanie von Hinke (Supervisor), Neil Davies (Supervisor), Frank Windmeijer (Supervisor) & Timothy Frayling (Supervisor)

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