Department of Economics, VU Amsterdam, De Boelelaan 1105, 1081 HV, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Econ Hum Biol. 2020 Jan;36:100816. doi: 10.1016/j.ehb.2019.100816. Epub 2019 Sep 7.
A growing body of research supports the Barker hypothesis that adverse conditions around the time of birth have a negative effect on health. Nevertheless, the mechanisms linking early life conditions with health are still unclear. This paper investigates one of such potential mechanisms, specifically, ambient stress, by analyzing the effect of economic downturns as a stressor on the probability of Cesarean Delivery (CD). I focus particularly on male CD since the literature reports that male fetuses are more sensitive to stressors in utero than female fetuses. Using data from Lifelines, a large cohort study from the northern Netherlands, I show that the probability of CD for male babies increases when unemployment levels rise. This result suggests that maternal stress might be one of the mechanisms how early life economic conditions affect health.
越来越多的研究支持 Barker 假说，即出生前后的不利条件对健康有负面影响。然而，将早期生活条件与健康联系起来的机制仍不清楚。本文通过分析经济衰退作为压力源对剖宫产（CD）概率的影响，研究了其中一种潜在机制，即环境压力。我特别关注男性 CD，因为文献报告称男性胎儿在子宫内比女性胎儿对压力更敏感。利用来自荷兰北部 Lifelines 的大型队列研究的数据，我表明当失业率上升时，男婴 CD 的概率会增加。这一结果表明，产妇压力可能是早期生活经济条件影响健康的机制之一。
