Lancet Series 2018: Preconception Health
2018
This Lancet Series focuses on how men’s and women’s health and nutrition before conception shapes both pregnancy outcomes and the long-term health of their children. Environmental factors—like diet, body composition, metabolism, and stress levels—influence people’s susceptibility to chronic disease throughout their lives, and especially so during the period around conception. Poor nutrition, noncommunicable diseases, infectious diseases, and various risk factors among women of reproductive age play important roles in the health of their children, in both low- and high-income settings. This preconception period can be viewed through a biological perspective (i.e. the days and weeks before embryo development); an individual perspective (i.e. the time of wanting to conceive); and a population perspective (i.e. any time when a woman is of childbearing age). The authors of the series’ three papers summarize the evidence of preconception health, suggest interventions and policies that address diet and nutrition, and stress the need for further political engagement around this period of life.
Series papers include:
Lancet Series 2018: Preconception Health
Source:
Preconception Health. The Lancet 2018. https://www.thelancet.com/series/preconception-health.