Early life Environmental Epidemiology

Our environment plays a key role in determining survival, health and wellbeing throughout the life course. Early life, starting at conception, is a vulnerable period of life during which our environment can have immediate and lifelong adverse and beneficial effects. Harmful environmental exposures such as toxicants in the diet, air and water contribute to adverse pregnancy and birth outcomes, mortality, diseases and disorders in early years and shape health and resilience to unhealthy environmental exposures later in life.

Our research group is conducting epidemiological research, mainly focused on the lifelong health effects of environmental exposures in early life. Additionally, we study how environmental exposures during pregnancy influence maternal health.

Environmental exposures do not occur in isolation. Different environmental exposures can interact with each other and with other determinants of health such as genes, the climate, social and lifestyle factors. Geographical variation and variation over time, as well as individual vulnerability that depend on the timing of the exposure, further challenge epidemiological studies of health effects of environmental exposures in early life.

Our research group works with unique datasets and benefits from ability to access and link comprehensive environmental exposure data with longitudinal birth cohort and registry data in Denmark. Our goal is to improve epidemiological studies of complex environmental exposures through the development and application of biomarkers of exposures and advanced modelling of environmental exposures that take into account variation over space and time. We aim to provide useful information needed for risk assessment and for implementation of cost-effective preventive actions aimed at reducing harmful environmental exposures and promoting beneficial environmental exposures.

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