Reproductive Epidemiology

Abstract

Reproductive epidemiology is a research field which should be given high priority. The perinatal time period is a time period of high risk and an increasing number of studies indicate that there may be a fetal origin of several diseases which surface to clinical detection in adult life and which have major public health importance.
Since the population in the world is still growing, little time and effort has been spent on research in human fecundity. The rising cost of infertility treatment and new findings indicating a possible decline in sperm production have, however, changed the picture and research funds are now allocated to research in the causes of subfecundity. Time has come for ambitious projects in the field. J Epidemiol, 1996 ; 6 : S35-S38.