Perceived health of adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine

Roseboom, Tessa J., Van der Meulen, Jan H., Ravelli, Anita C., Osmond, Clive, Barker, David J.P. and Bleker, Otto P. (2003) Perceived health of adults after prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine. Paediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology, 17 (4), 391-397. (doi:10.1046/j.1365-3016.2003.00516.x).

Abstract

People who were undernourished in early gestation are more obese, have a more atherogenic lipid profile, and altered blood coagulation and seem to have an increased risk of coronary heart disease. We now report on whether they also feel less healthy. We therefore assessed the perceived health of 50-year-old-men and women born alive as singletons around the time of the Dutch famine in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam. People who had been exposed to famine in early gestation, but not those exposed in mid- or late gestation, more often rated their health as poor (10.3% vs. to 4.9% in the unexposed, odds ratio (OR) 2.2 [1.0, 4.8]).
The effect of exposure to famine in early gestation on perceived health could only partly be explained by an increased prevalence of coronary heart disease, respiratory diseases, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, hypercholesterolaemia or cancer (adjusted OR 2.2 [0.9, 5.2]). Adjustment for adult risk factors (BMI, LDL/HDL cholesterol ratio, blood pressure, smoking, lung function) also attenuated the results to some extent (adjusted OR 1.9 [0.6, 5.5]). People who were exposed to famine in early gestation were not only less healthy in terms of objective measures of health but they also felt less healthy. Because poor perceived health is a strong predictor of mortality, we may expect increased mortality in people who were exposed to famine in early gestation in the future.

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Contributors

Author: Clive Osmond

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