Network On Reversibility: Mid-Life Reversibility Of Early Established Biobehavioral Risk Factors

Links between early prenatal and postnatal adverse experiences and physical and mental health in late adulthood have become well established.  Animal and human studies suggest that some of these risk persistence mechanisms are malleable. In fact, preventive interventions well into adult life may blunt or even reverse their negative effect on trajectories of health in aging individuals. In February 2013, the National Institute on Aging (NIA) Division of Behavioral and Social Research (BSR) convened a diverse team of experts for a second meeting on the Network on Reversibility with the goals to develop a program of research that tests feasible preventive interventions that might counter or compensate for risk persistence mechanisms influenced or induced by early adversity and to marshal a transdisciplinary approach to estimate the likely impact of such a program. A summary report (PDF, 1.06M) of the workshop is available.