Department of Sociology and Criminology, Population Research Institute, Pennsylvania State University, 211 Oswald Tower, University Park, PA 16802, United States.
Institute of Economics, Geography and Demography (IEGD), Madrid, Spain.
Soc Sci Med. 2022 Sep;309:115274. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2022.115274. Epub 2022 Aug 12.
Childhood exposure to contexts of war is a common occurrence among current and recent cohorts of children in various parts of the world. It was also common among older cohorts across Europe. Utilizing the Survey of Health, Ageing, and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) the present study links early life course residential histories with detailed information on the timing and location of hostilities during WWII to address three questions: 1) is childhood exposure to war associated with earlier onset of cardiometabolic disease (cardiovascular disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, and diabetes)? 2) did this additional risk vary depending on the timing of first exposure? 3) did this additional risk manifest via different life course pathways depending on exposure timing? Results demonstrate that exposure to war is associated with increased lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, high cholesterol, and hypertension and that this association is strongly concentrated among cohorts exposed in utero or during early childhood (e.g., before age 8). The results also suggest that the impact of war exposure on cardiometabolic disorders are likely to be direct, operating through latent biological processes rather than through childhood hardship, stunting of adult socioeconomic attainment, or elevated risk-taking behaviors.
儿童时期经历战争环境在世界各地的当前和最近几代儿童中很常见。在欧洲的老一辈人中也很常见。本研究利用欧洲健康、老龄化和退休调查（SHARE），将早期生活经历与有关第二次世界大战期间敌对行动的时间和地点的详细信息联系起来，以解决三个问题：1）儿童时期经历战争是否与心血管疾病（心血管疾病、高血压、高胆固醇和糖尿病）的发病时间提前有关？2）这种额外的风险是否取决于首次暴露的时间？3）这种额外的风险是否通过不同的生命过程途径表现出来，具体取决于暴露的时间？研究结果表明，暴露于战争与心血管疾病、糖尿病、高胆固醇和高血压的终生风险增加有关，而这种关联主要集中在子宫内或幼儿期（例如，8 岁之前）暴露的队列中。研究结果还表明，战争暴露对心血管代谢紊乱的影响可能是直接的，通过潜在的生物学过程起作用，而不是通过儿童期的困难、成年期社会经济地位的提高受限或风险行为的增加起作用。
