Childhood health researchers urgently needed to prevent future burden on NHS, doctors warn
the indepdendent | Sally Guyoncourt | 8 February 2016
A lack of research into childhood health is creating a ticking time bomb of adult diseases for the future, doctors have warned.
While medical research on adult conditions has continued apace, poor funding has seen similar work on childhood health dwindle.
This has already placed a heavy burden on the NHS, according to medical experts, and is set to have a catastrophic effect on the health of future generations.
Now the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH) plans to redress the balance by setting up a fund to recruit and train medical researchers to look specifically at childhood conditions and their link to adult diseases.
Professor Neena Modi, president of the RCPCH, said: “There have been inexorable rises in the prevalence of chronic, debilitating, non-communicable disease in adult populations that are crippling health economies and systems.
“The origins of these conditions often lie in early development and the solutions require strong basic science and biomedical research that includes infants and children.”
Among the key childhood conditions causing concern is the rise in obesity in the UK.
Professor Modi said: “One in five children aged five are overweight or obese and one in three 10-year-olds is overweight or obese in the UK. Children of today are going to have a shorter lifespan than their parents because of this obesity epidemic.
“We really need to understand what is going on in early childhood in order to influence adult health.”
Asthma, type-2 diabetes, cardiovascular problems, high blood pressure and even cancer in adults are also known to have links with infant and childhood health.
