Association of early-life growth conditions with adult lung health

Project Summary

Early-life growth conditions have been associated with later-life lung health and disease. Whether this relationship is related to impaired lung growth (i.e., lower adult lung function), impaired homeostasis (i.e., accelerated adult lung function decline), or increased susceptibility to traditional lung risk factors (e.g., cigarette smoking) is poorly understood. This project will use a validated index of early-life growth conditions (“height-GaP”) that is deployable in adulthood to investigate these hypotheses. “Height-GaP” is computed as the difference between attained adult height and genotype-predicted height and has been validated as an index of adverse early-life growth conditions in two birth cohorts. This study seeks to test whether larger height-GaP deficit will be associated with (1) lower adult lung function, (2) accelerated adult lung function decline, and (3) increased susceptibility to cigarette smoking.