Developmental origins of health and disease: the views of first-time mothers in 5 European countries on the importance of nutritional influences in the first year of life.

BACKGROUND

The programming concept suggests that poor early nutrition causes an array of medical problems later in life. Public health messages about the implications of programming may not be reaching parents and influencing infant feeding behaviors.

OBJECTIVE

The views of new mothers were sought about the extent to which lifelong health is influenced by diet as an infant, rather than by genetic predispositions or lifestyles and behaviors.

DESIGN

A questionnaire survey of first-time mothers was undertaken in 5 European countries.

RESULTS

A convenience sample of 2071 mothers from England (438), Finland (426), Germany (414), Hungary (389), and Spain (404) self-completed the questionnaire. High proportions of mothers agreed that how an infant is fed affects his or her health over the first year (95.8%) and in subsequent years (88.5%), but the effect of infant feeding decisions on the development of long-term conditions was the least-cited underlying reason. Diet as an infant was rated an extremely/very important influence on adult health by 64% of mothers, equivalent to environmental pollution (63%), but by fewer mothers than were diet and physical activity in childhood/adolescence (79%, 84%) and adulthood (81%, 83%), genetics/inheritance (70%), and exposure to cigarette smoke (81%). Inter- and intracountry differences were observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Mothers in this study consider diet as an infant to be a less important influence on lifelong health than many lifestyle, behavioral, and environmental factors and genetics. Further dissemination of the implications of programming to consumers may be warranted.