Wiegersma Aline Marileen, Roseboom Tessa J, de Rooij Susanne R
Epidemiology and Data Science, Amsterdam UMC Location University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Health Behaviors & Chronic Diseases, Aging & Later Life, Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Paediatr Perinat Epidemiol. 2025 Mar;39(3):236-241. doi: 10.1111/ppe.13131. Epub 2024 Oct 1.
We have previously shown that exposure to famine in early gestation was associated with poorer adult health and, in women, with reduced survival up to age 64.
Here, we explore the association between prenatal famine exposure and mortality up to age 76 for men and women separately.
We studied adult mortality (>18 years) in men (n = 989) and women (n = 1002) born as term singletons around the time of the 1944-1945 Dutch famine. We compared overall and cause-specific mortality among men and women exposed to famine in late, mid, or early gestation to that among unexposed persons (born before or conceived after the famine) using Cox regression.
In total, 500 persons (25.1%) had died after age 18. Women exposed to famine in early gestation had higher overall (HR 1.49, 95% CI 1.00, 2.23), cancer (HR 2.17, 95% CI 1.32,3.58) and cardiovascular mortality (HR 2.33, 95% CI 0.91, 5.95) compared to unexposed women. Mortality rates among men were not different between exposure groups.
This study showed that women, but not men, exposed to famine in early gestation had increased overall, cardiovascular and cancer mortality up to age 76. Although prenatal famine exposure affects adult health of both men and women, it seems to only lead to increased mortality among women.
我们之前已经表明，孕期早期暴露于饥荒与成年人健康状况较差有关，对女性而言，还与64岁之前的生存率降低有关。
在此，我们分别探讨产前饥荒暴露与男性和女性76岁之前死亡率之间的关联。
我们研究了1944 - 1945年荷兰饥荒前后足月出生的单胎男性（n = 989）和女性（n = 1002）的成人死亡率（>18岁）。我们使用Cox回归比较了孕期晚期、中期或早期暴露于饥荒的男性和女性与未暴露者（饥荒前出生或饥荒后受孕）的总体死亡率和特定原因死亡率。
共有500人（25.1%）在18岁之后死亡。与未暴露的女性相比，孕期早期暴露于饥荒的女性总体死亡率（风险比1.49，95%置信区间1.00，2.23）、癌症死亡率（风险比2.17，95%置信区间1.32，3.58）和心血管疾病死亡率（风险比2.33，95%置信区间0.91，5.95）更高。暴露组之间男性的死亡率没有差异。
这项研究表明，孕期早期暴露于饥荒的女性在76岁之前总体、心血管和癌症死亡率增加，而男性则不然。虽然产前饥荒暴露会影响男性和女性的成年健康，但似乎只会导致女性死亡率增加。
