A mother-to-be may wonder how to give her unborn child the healthiest start to life.
- Should she eat only organic food?
- How much physical activity is the right amount?
- How can she avoid pollutants when they surround her in her everyday environment?
Research shows that the development of many serious diseases may occur as early as in the womb. So what happens in pregnancy, or even our parents' health, can increase our risk of chronic health issues such as obesity, heart disease, allergies and poor mental health developing in later life.
These diseases collectively are known as non-communicable diseases (NCD) and pose the greatest threat to human health globally.
Through the study of early environments, maternal physical health and genetics, ORIGINS aims to uncover when and why non-communicable diseases develop.
The ultimate goal of the project is to reduce the rising epidemic of non-communicable diseases through 'a healthy start to life'.
ORIGINS is collecting detailed information about how early environment influences the risk of a broad range of diseases, including asthma, allergies, diabetes, obesity and its many complications. We are recruiting women, and their partners if possible, early in pregnancy and collecting data on their health, diet, physical activity patterns and a range of factors in their environment. We are then assessing how these early life exposures influence their child's growth, development, and health (including neurodevelopment, evidence of allergies, infections, and other medical history).
Pregnant women delivering their baby at Joondalup Health Campus are eligible to participate in ORIGINS.
Recruitment of active participants of ORIGINS is now closed.
However families can still contribute to life-changing research by consenting to allow the ORIGINS team to access data routinely collected by Joondalup Health Campus when you give birth at the hospital. FIND OUT MORE HERE
In addition to routine care, participants already enrolled in ORIGINS are being asked to complete online questionnaires and collect samples. At one, three and five years of age, families are invited to attend a free health and development assessment for their child. This detailed follow-up will provide early detection of developmental issues and referral to services if required. Various assessments, including skin prick allergy testing and body composition measurements are conducted.
ORIGINS is a longitudinal birth cohort study, which involves the repeated collection of the same information/data from participants over a long period of time, starting during pregnancy and continuing until the child turns five years old, and beyond.
Continuing to collect rich longitudinal data from our families, beyond their child’s first five years, is how we will really see the outcomes of the research ORIGINS is undertaking. Changes can be tracked, across the family unit, so that cause and effect relationships can be discovered. Longitudinal studies can provide a unique insight that might not be possible any other way.
ORIGINS is one of many international studies of this type. Follow the link to find out about other longitudinal studies: Longitudinal-cohort-studies
Why create a new birth cohort study?
The Raine Study
The Raine Study, established in 1989, was one of the very first Developmental Origins of Health and Disease studies in the world.
It was the first and largest pregnancy cohort study in the world to include detailed fetal measurements. It has been decades, however, since the Raine study was established. There have been many changes in lifestyles, nutrition, environment and behaviour, which are posing new questions about their impact on health.
We have also seen the emergence of many 'new' health challenges, including the dramatic increasing burden of obesity in children, the allergy epidemic and an increasing burden of mental ill health, especially in children and young people. All of these conditions have their 'origins' in early life, and there is a pressing need to understand how the early environment is contributing to this unsustainable health burden. It is estimated that the current generation of children will have a shorter life expectancy than their parents, simply because of obesity and its complications. Early interventions will be the only way to curtail this situation.
Since the Raine Study began, there have been substantial advances in this field, including the emerging role of the 'microbiome' (the balance of good and bad bacteria in the gut) in all aspects of health, and the study of 'epigenetics' (the study of changes in gene activity which are not caused by changes in the DNA sequence) as a new frontier in understanding genetic and environmental influences during early development.
The establishment of the Clinical School at the Joondalup Health Campus provides the perfect opportunity and an ideal environment to build a new birth cohort. The campus participates in the training of medical, midwifery and nursing students through clinical placements. This is a well-integrated multidisciplinary team with strong links to the community and academic institutions including the University of Western Australia, Curtin University and Edith Cowan University.