Obesity in young men after famine exposure in utero and early infancy

Ravelli GP, Stein ZA, Susser MW

1976

Western Holland and Columbia Uni. (New York)

From October 1944 to May 1945 an acute famine affected the western Netherlands. The authors investigated birth cohorts exposed to the famine as well as synchronous births in other Dutch urban areas outside of the affected area. They combined information about prenatal and early post natal status at the time of the famine with weight and height at age 19 on examination of 300,000 men from these birth cohorts for military service. Deprivation during the last trimester of pregnancy and the first months after birth was associated with lower obesity rates at age 19 whereas deprivation during the first half of pregnancy was related to significantly higher obesity rates.

The interest of such a study is that a correlation was established between the risk of obesity in adulthood and starvation in fetal life and the neonatal period. The correlation was not explored in regard to birth weight. See also entry 0107. This study was completed by a glucose tolerance study in adults after prenatal exposure to famine (see entry 0127)