Developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD): perspectives from bioarchaeology

Abstract

While most data on early-life plasticity originate from longitudinal, epidemiological or anthropological studies of living people, bioarchaeology can provide extensive insight into the developmental origins of health and disease (DOHaD) from a deep time perspective. Human remains can yield information across the life course analogous to longitudinal analyses, considered the gold standard for studies of contemporary populations. This chapter reviews the history of DOHaD and provides an overview of how bioarchaeology can contribute to evolutionary medicine within the DOHaD framework. Using specific approaches and case studies, it explores the nature of individual frailty and stress responses as well as the influence of critical windows on growth and development on later-life health, including historical periods of famine, the Industrial Revolution in Europe (characterised by increasing socio-economic inequalities), and ways in which bioarchaeology can be used to examine life course patterns. It examines the nature of population responses to changing environmental conditions and provides a deep time perspective into how these responses have moulded past health experiences. In a world shaped by increasing socio-economic disparities, it demonstrates how the bioarchaeological record can inform our understanding of the social determinants of health. Finally, while critically evaluating both the strengths and limitations of bioarchaeological data for addressing early-life issues, it reveals the significant contributions that can be made to evolutionary medicine through examination of osteological remains from past populations, as well as the relevance of these contributions to current population adaptations.