Who was David Barker?
David Barker was a pioneer, among the first to tie chronic disease in adulthood to growth patterns in early life. His work began nearly 30 years ago while studying birth and death records in England, where he noticed a link between low birth weight and a risk for dying from coronary heart disease as an adult. He developed a hypothesis that early-life nutrition and growth is an important factor in determining whether a baby will grow up to be more or less vulnerable to cardiac and metabolic disorders.