Kimhy David, Harlap Susan, Fennig Shmuel, Deutsch Lisa, Draiman Benjamin G, Corcoran Cheryl, Goetz Deborah, Nahon Daniella, Malaspina Dolores
Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Schizophr Res. 2006 Sep;86(1-3):23-9. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2006.04.017. Epub 2006 Jun 5.
Animal models of schizophrenia suggest a link between maternal crowding during pregnancy and increased risk of the offspring to develop physiological, developmental, and behavioral abnormalities that are comparable to those observed in schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that a similar link is present in humans.
We investigated whether prenatal exposure to household crowding was associated with the risk of schizophrenia in a sub-cohort of the Jerusalem Perinatal Study (JPS) consisting 11,015 individuals born between 1964 and 1976. During these years mothers participated in face to face interviews in early pregnancy. The prenatal and birth data, including the number of rooms and individuals living in the mothers' household, was cross-linked with the Israel Psychiatric Registry by ministry personnel.
104 schizophrenia cases were identified in the cohort. Offspring who, while in utero, their mother resided in a household with five or more individuals had RR of 1.47 (95% CI: 0.99-2.16, p=0.05) to develop schizophrenia, compared to those whose mother resided with four or fewer individuals. However, when adjusted for paternal age, the RR was reduced to 1.18 (95% CI: 0.76-1.84, p=0.46). The number of rooms in the household and the household crowding during pregnancy did not significantly impact the offspring's risk to develop schizophrenia.
The link between maternal household crowding during pregnancy and the offspring's risk of schizophrenia was explained primarily by the impact of paternal age. The authors discuss the results in view of findings from animal and human studies.
精神分裂症的动物模型表明，孕期母亲所处环境拥挤与后代出现生理、发育和行为异常风险增加之间存在关联，这些异常与精神分裂症患者所观察到的情况相似。我们检验了人类中是否存在类似关联这一假设。
我们在耶路撒冷围产期研究（JPS）的一个子队列中调查了产前暴露于家庭拥挤环境是否与精神分裂症风险相关，该子队列由1964年至1976年间出生的11,015人组成。在这些年份里，母亲们在怀孕早期接受了面对面访谈。包括母亲家庭居住房间数和人数在内的产前及出生数据由政府工作人员与以色列精神病学登记处进行了交叉关联。
该队列中识别出104例精神分裂症病例。与母亲居住在四人或更少人数家庭中的后代相比，子宫内时母亲居住在五人或更多人数家庭中的后代患精神分裂症的风险比（RR）为1.47（95%置信区间：0.99 - 2.16，p = 0.05）。然而，在调整父亲年龄后，风险比降至1.18（95%置信区间：0.76 - 1.84，p = 0.46）。家庭房间数以及孕期家庭拥挤程度对后代患精神分裂症的风险没有显著影响。
孕期母亲家庭拥挤与后代患精神分裂症风险之间的关联主要由父亲年龄的影响来解释。作者结合动物和人类研究的结果对这些结果进行了讨论。
