Fetal Growth and Ischemic Heart Disease

Running head: ANALYTIC APPROACHES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Analytic Approaches in Epidemiology
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ANALYTIC APPROACHES IN EPIDEMIOLOGY
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Analytic Approaches in Epidemiology
Leon et al (1998) argue that the development of a fetus while in the womb has a direct
impact on the weight of the child as well as the risk of getting certain diseases. Children born
with low weights have a higher risk of developing heart condition than those with a normal range
of newborn weights. Medical experts argue that a fetus, which grows in the right way, has a high
chance of leading a normal life when the child is born. They have less developmental issues and
conditions that affect the growth of a child do not affect both in the short-term and in the long-
term. Physically, they appear weak and do not breastfeed in the right manner making it
impossible for them to gain weight within the first few weeks after birth (Baschat, 2011).
Medical experts that deal with infants diagnose the infants at a young age for close
observation. It is evident that if they observed them during pregnancy, they would have noted
any abnormality with the development and growth of the fetus (Go et al., 2013). This allows
early diagnosis and onset of treatment immediately after birth.
The authors studied more than 15,000 men and women born in the early 1900s to determine
whether there is a direct relationship between the reduced fetal growth rate and the increased risk
of death from the ischaemic heart disease (Dawber et al., 2015). They found out that a fetus,
which lacks the conducive environment, nutrients, and air to grow has a high risk of developing
abnormally. Hence, a child may be born with a deformity. This is because not every part of their
body reached its maturity during the duration of pregnancy where a fetus grows and matures to
become a fully formed baby. Amongst some of the conditions that affect the undeveloped and
immature fetus is the ischaemic heart disease (Baschat, 2011). The heart refuses to develop and
when the baby is born, they are underweight. From the onset, the baby has a low infant growth