Pregnancy and birth cohorts in Europe: An overview

Recently, it has become increasingly apparent that new and modern lifestyles have considerably greater adverse and long-term health effects that it has been perceived previously. Health issues such as metabolic diseases, mental health, and respiratory system diseases and alike, which in most cases are preventable, are becoming more common due to the sedentary lifestyle, unhealthy dietary patterns, polluted environment and everyday stress. Although many studies investigate the causes and consequences of these problems, in recent decades the prevailing research models have become cohorts. Such studies have a sample that represents a specific segment of the population (share the same characteristics such as age, gender, place of residence etc.) as a study subject and they can be prospective and retrospective. Prospective studies look for outcomes of certain exposures, whereas retrospective studies look backwards comparing two groups of people, one under a certain exposure and the other unexposed. Birth cohort studies are especially suitable study methods for understanding the influence of the environment in which a child develops during pregnancy, on its development later in life and its overall health. The main advantage is that there are no limits to follow-ups and health outcomes can be monitored until adulthood or even further in life (Brandstetter et al., 2019). In addition, because of the large difference between children in different regions, even within the same country, a general approach is an excellent tool for Abstract