Statistical issues in examining the developmental origin of adult disease: examples from the Jerusalem Perinatal Study

Research on the developmental origin of adult disease examines the influence of early life events on the risks of chronic disease later in life. The Jerusalem Perinatal Study is a population-based cohort of all (92,000) children born in Jerusalem during the period 1964-76 with rich demographic and reproductive data and over 30 years of follow-up period. The dataset offers a unique opportunity for examining the associations between early life events and health and disease later in life and investigating potential mechanisms explaining these associations. Yet, it presents numerous statistical and methodological challenges including the dependency between offspring within a family, determining the origin and time scale for time-to-event analysis, suitably characterizing family history and assessing a potential mismatch between the prenatal and young adulthood environments.