This publication describes a collaboration to investigate complications during pregnancy and around birth, such as premature delivery, high blood pressure, and gestational diabetes, which can harm both mother and baby. Because clinical trials in pregnant women are difficult, the collaboration brings together data from hundreds of thousands of women across several large studies and combines different types of evidence, including genetic data, to better understand the causes of pregnancy complications. Results so far include showing that higher maternal body mass index increases the risk of multiple complications, as well as the identification of maternal circulating metabolites and proteins that may influence birth weight.

Exposure to road traffic noise is associated with suboptimal health outcomes, but it is not well understood how. In this study, we examined if a biological mechanism called DNA methylation may play a role. We used data from six European studies and examined DNA methylation at birth, in early and in late childhood. We found some evidence that exposure to road traffic noise is associated with changes in DNA methylation in children. This may indicate that DNA methylation plays a role in bringing about the known health effects of exposure to road traffic noise, but future studies will have to examine this further to draw solid conclusions.

Exposures during early life, such as parental smoking or dietary exposures, may affect later-life health. Many of these exposures may be difficult to measure reliably, for example because information on previous exposures is not available for everyone or because it is not measured in enough detail. Using a biological marker, DNA methylation, which can be measured in blood, it is possible to create so-called “methylation profile scores” (MPSs), which can be used as indicators of these exposures. Most of the currently available MPSs are created in adults and information in children is much more limited. In this paper, we review studies on MPSs in children, describe their main characteristics and introduce an online tool, DEMETRA, which helps users to identify and select scores best suited to their study.

Healthy ageing policies must do more than improve average outcomes—they must reduce inequalities. This review shows that while many intervention studies mention factors like gender, education, and socioeconomic status, they often fail to examine whether programs work equally well across groups. Some interventions reduced inequities, most showed no difference, and a few may have widened gaps. To avoid reinforcing disadvantage, policymakers and researchers should require consistent equity reporting and intersectional analysis, ensuring healthy ageing strategies actively close, rather than ignore, social and economic health gaps.

Body size in childhood can shape a person’s health later in life but most studies focus on single diseases. We followed 112,952 Danish children from age 15 to 60 years to see if disease patterns differed by childhood body size groups of underweight, normal weight, overweight or obesity. We found that children with obesity had the highest number of hospital diagnoses overall and were more likely to be diagnosed with obesity as adults than the other groups. However, children with obesity did not have major differences in the diagnoses of other diseases compared to the other groups. Our findings highlight the importance of investing in prevention and treatment of childhood obesity.

Maternal stress during pregnancy is associated with offspring health. The exact underlying biological mechanisms are not well understood. In this work, we examined if exposure to maternal stress, jointly with the genetic background of the child may be associated with a potential mechanism called DNA methylation. If so, this may partially explain how maternal stress may affect child health. In 2963 mother-child pairs from two studies from the Netherlands and the UK, some support of interaction of prenatal stress with the child\\\'s genetic background on DNA methylation of genes related to neuronal development.

Older adults are increasingly facing multiple chronic diseases at the same time (known as multi-morbidity), which puts extra strain on health services. People age in environments that may support or hinder healthy lifestyle behaviours. The current study looked at how various environmental factors around where people live (for example, neighbourhood green space, nearby cars, sociodemographic context) are related to whether older people have one disease or several at once. The results indicate that living in areas with more green space was linked to lower odds of having a single chronic disease. In contrast, many of the other environmental exposures (like air pollution or chemical exposures) showed weaker or no clear associations. The results suggest that improving neighbourhood built environments may help support healthier aging by preventing or reducing multiple chronic conditions.

Epigenetic research examines changes to the DNA that affect how active genes are. For this type of research, it is important to know from which cell type(s) the DNA come, because epigenetics are different between cells. As we often do not have exact information on the cell types, we use methods to estimate them. The cell types differ by age. Therefore, there are different methods for different age groups, but there is no one method available that can be used for all ages. In this project, we have developed such a method, called UniLIFE.

The study looked at how to design a health app by working closely with doctors and researchers. A survey was used to find out what features the app should have. The results showed the app should be easy to use, track health automatically and manually, and include physical, mental, social, and environmental health. It also needs to follow strong ethical guidelines. People could use it for personal health, research, and making health decisions. In the future, patients and the public will help shape the app to make sure it’s useful and relevant for everyone.

Study aimed to explore the key psychological stressors experienced by older imprisoned persons and their coping strategies. Qualitative interviews were conducted between April 2017 and December 2018 with a purposive sample of 79 participants from 2 different groups in Switzerland: older imprisoned persons (n = 50) and mental health professionals (n = 29) with experience working in prisons. This study has identified various ways in which the prison environment not only undermines older incarcerated persons´ psychological well-being, but also their ability to manage the stress they are experiencing.

Based on the practical experience of using ethics and social science methodology in interdisciplinary consortia, this paper presents several methods that have proven helpful for embedding ethical and social science analysis and inquiry.

Aging populations require adapting healthcare systems for older adult\'s specific needs. Numerous initiatives to improve older-patient care have emerged, but the field lacks a unified framework. The current study aims to provide a systematic concept analysis of ‘age-friendly healthcare’, examining its characteristics, components and structure.