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Topic · Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health

Birth, Development, and Health

Birth, Development, and Health is a research topic within Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health. Science Explorer counts 71k research works in it since 1950. 10.0% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the developmental origins of adult health and disease, focusing on the impact of in utero and early-life conditions on long-term health outcomes. The research covers topics such as fetal programming, metabolic syndrome, epigenetic mechanisms, catch-up growth, hypertension risk associated with low birth weight, and the role of glucocorticoid programming in chronic disease development.

  • Fetal Programming
  • Early-Life Conditions
  • Metabolic Syndrome
  • Epigenetic Mechanisms
  • In Utero Nutrition
  • Catch-Up Growth
  • Hypertension Risk
  • Low Birth Weight
  • Glucocorticoid Programming
  • Chronic Disease
Research works
71k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
7.1k
per year above
Top-10% rate
10.0%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
+5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
38% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Birth, Development, and Health

This ranks research output and citation impact. It says nothing about the quality of diagnosis, treatment or care.

Which countries lead Birth, Development, and Health research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (3k and 1.8k works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 3k works
  2. 2 China 1.8k works
  3. 3 India 616 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 539 works
  5. 5 Canada 359 works
  6. 6 Brazil 341 works
  7. 7 Japan 330 works
  8. 8 Australia 324 works
  9. 9 Germany 314 works
  10. 10 Italy 285 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States: 37.8%China: 22.4%India: 7.9%United Kingdom: 6.9%6 others listed: 25.0%38%largest
United States2,962 · 37.8%China1,757 · 22.4%India616 · 7.9%United Kingdom539 · 6.9%6 others listed1,954 · 25.0%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Birth, Development, and Health research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Birth, Development, and Health research, followed by University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Russian Academy of Sciences.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 114 works
  2. 2 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 112 works
  3. 3 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 71 works
  4. 4 Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 60 works
  5. 5 Peking UniversityChina 54 works
  6. 6 University of TorontoCanada 52 works
  7. 7 Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 50 works
  8. 8 National Institutes of HealthUnited States 44 works
  9. 9 Nanjing Medical UniversityChina 42 works
  10. 10 University College LondonUnited Kingdom 41 works

Who are the leading researchers in Birth, Development, and Health?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Birth, Development, and Health include Douglas G. Altman, Ahmedin Jemal and Christopher J L Murray.

  1. 1 Douglas G. Altman United Kingdom 862k citations
  2. 2 Ahmedin Jemal United States 761k citations
  3. 3 Christopher J L Murray United States 583k citations
  4. 4 Rob Knight United States 468k citations
  5. 5 Simon Iain Hay United States 452k citations
  6. 6 Theo Vos United States 439k citations
  7. 7 George Davey Smith United Kingdom 435k citations
  8. 8 Ali H. Mokdad United States 429k citations
  9. 9 Walter Churchill Willett United States 411k citations
  10. 10 Mark J. Daly United States 403k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Birth, Development, and Health?

The most cited paper in Birth, Development, and Health is "Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey" (Tim James Cole, 2000), with 16,616 citations. Next come "Developing and evaluating complex interventions: the new Medical Research Council guidance" (11,477) and "AIN-93 Purified Diets for Laboratory Rodents: Final Report of the American Institute of Nutrition Ad Hoc Writing Committee on the Reformulation of the AIN-76A Rodent Diet" (8,763).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Establishing a standard definition for child overweight and obesity worldwide: international survey Tim James Cole · BMJ Open access 6 May 2000 16,616
2 Developing and evaluating complex interventions: the new Medical Research Council guidance Peter Craig, Paul A Dieppe, Sally MacIntyre et al. · BMJ Open access 29 Sep 2008 11,477
3 AIN-93 Purified Diets for Laboratory Rodents: Final Report of the American Institute of Nutrition Ad Hoc Writing Committee on the Reformulation of the AIN-76A Rodent Diet Philip G. Reeves, Forrest Harold Nielsen, George C Fahey Jr · Journal of Nutrition Nov 1993 8,763
4 Maternal and child undernutrition and overweight in low-income and middle-income countries Robert E. Black, Cesar Gomes Victora, Susan P. Walker et al. · The Lancet 5 Jun 2013 8,670
5 Worldwide trends in body-mass index, underweight, overweight, and obesity from 1975 to 2016: a pooled analysis of 2416 population-based measurement studies in 128·9 million children, adolescents, and adults Leandra Abarca-Gómez et al. · The Lancet Open access1,040 authors 13 Oct 2017 7,739
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Birth, Development, and Health research done?

The largest centres of Birth, Development, and Health research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), London (United Kingdom), Shanghai (China) and New York (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Jackson, Aurora and Little Rock.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 269 works
  2. 2 LondonUnited Kingdom 173 works
  3. 3 ShanghaiChina 146 works
  4. 4 New YorkUnited States 118 works
  5. 5 Chapel HillUnited States 111 works
  6. 6 GuangzhouChina 106 works
  7. 7 MoscowRussia 105 works
  8. 8 BostonUnited States 100 works
  9. 9 WuhanChina 98 works
  10. 10 TokyoJapan 97 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. JacksonUS · 30.1 works21×
  2. AuroraUS · 41.6 works8.8×
  3. Little RockUS · 21.0 works6.8×
  4. BirminghamUS · 39.1 works6.1×
  5. New OrleansUS · 31.5 works5.3×
  6. Chapel HillUS · 111.1 works5.2×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Birth, Development, and Health than the world average.

See Birth, Development, and Health on the map

Where is the best place to study Birth, Development, and Health?

Among universities, judged by research, University of Chieti-Pescara, Harvard University and Anhui Medical University score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 18.33%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →University of Chieti…Anhui Medical Univer…Peking UniversityHarvard University
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1University of Chieti-PescaraItaly 65.342.8%6.9×10 +80.5%
2Harvard UniversityUnited States 63.713.4%3.5×114 -3.4%
3Anhui Medical UniversityChina 56.118.7%7.2×34 +33.9%
4Peking UniversityChina 54.615.9%2.6×54 +28.7%
5University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 54.621.4%3.3×41 -33.9%
6University of Colorado Anschutz Medical CampusUnited States 54.512.1%11.5×32 +39.4%
7Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina 54.415.4%2.0×60 +22.0%
8University of MichiganUnited States 53.515.5%2.6×40 +18.3%
9Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States 51.710.7%3.1×50 +6.2%
10Yale UniversityUnited States 51.517.4%2.8×32 +24.3%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Birth, Development, and Health, country by country

Is Birth, Development, and Health research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% higher than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2024. The fastest-growing topics are Birth, Development, and Health.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Birth, Development, and Health as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.056% in 2024.

still counting0.050%0.10%0.15%Birth, Development, and Health0.048% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Birth, Development, and Health over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Birth, Development, and Health10.2% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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