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ORIGINS is Australia's largest longitudinal cohort study of its kind. Following 10,000 WA children from their time in the womb into early childhood, ORIGINS researchers are working to better understand when and why non-communicable diseases develop, and provide solutions for early intervention to ensure every child and family flourishes throughout their lifetime.
Maternal diet during pregnancy has long been recognised as an important determinant of neonatal outcomes and child development. Infant body composition is a potentially modifiable risk factor for predicting future health and metabolic disease.
Infant allergy is the most common early manifestation of an increasing propensity for inflammation and immune dysregulation in modern environments. Refined low-fibre diets are a major risk for inflammatory diseases through adverse effects on the composition and function of gut microbiota. This has focused attention on the potential of prebiotic dietary fibres to favourably change gut microbiota, for local and systemic anti-inflammatory effects.
Oral immunotherapy is effective at inducing desensitisation to allergens and induces sustained unresponsiveness (ie, clinical remission) in a subset of patients, but causes frequent reactions. We aimed to investigate whether addition of a probiotic adjuvant improved the efficacy or safety of peanut oral immunotherapy.
The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between a child's weight and a broad range of family and maternal factors.
In this study, we examined the effects of maternal smoking as a major adverse exposure in early life, on mucosal immune function and allergen sensitization...
The rates of obesity and type 1 diabetes (T1D) in children and adolescents are increasing in many settings worldwide, but data on weight gain in this group are limited in New Zealand. We examined temporal body mass index (BMI) changes and associated factors in young people with T1D in a mixed urban-rural region.
Consumption of a Mediterranean diet (MD) has been associated with reduced incidence of non-communicable diseases and reduced overall mortality, with epigenomic effects representing plausible mediators. The aim of this pilot study was to explore potential epigenetic associations between DNA methylation markers in blood and adherence to an MD in pregnancy.
Amniotic epithelial cells are fetal-derived stem cells, capable of differentiating into all three germ layers, including mature epithelial cell populations. Here, we hypothesised that the amniotic epithelium might serve as a surrogate tissue source for investigating transcriptional profiles in the respiratory epithelium of newborns.
Young children are increasingly exposed to evolving screen technology. International guidelines recommend no screen use for children under the age of 2 years, due to the potential for detrimental effects on behaviour and development. However, evidence for these guidelines is limited by inadequate consideration of device-specific effects (TV and mobile phone/tablet computer), maternal screen use, confounders such as maternal mental health and importance of effect sizes.