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The purpose of this study is to describe the consequences of antenatal contact on the health of people due to the Dutch Famine and to determine how to improve the health of their future generations. It also determines the impact mothers with malnutrition have on the size, weight, and health in later life of the unborn child during the famines.
The background that led to this study
The main reason for carrying out the study is chronic degenerative diseases, like cancer respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease, which have affected the public health in Western countries for a long time. Almost 75% of the mortality rate among the adults in these countries is due to these diseases. The Dutch famine provides many data for studying the effects of malnutrition during pregnancy in humans.
Is there a hypothesis?
There is a hypothesis. Many indications have been found which suggest that the diseases take shape in the womb. It has also been hypothesized that due to malnutrition the fetus in the vital stages of development adapts in its physiological, metabolic and structural areas permanently thus, increasing the risk of getting the disease later in life.
The study design
The study was fundamentally based on the people affected by the Dutch Famine. As a result, the focus of the study was only viewed from this perspective making the data related to this issue only. Only those people born during the Dutch famine were studied but those with missing medical records were excluded. In addition, babies who were born alive between 1 November 1943 and 28 February 1947 were considered. In total 2414, babies were studied.
Who are the subjects?
The subjects are mainly the fetus that is still in its mothers womb with access to limited supply of nutrients and those people who suffered from malnutrition in early stages of their development. Thus, the study mainly focuses on the under-nourished population who were born during the Dutch Famine.
The method used
The subjects, who were still alive and present in Netherlands, around 1081, were first interviewed and 741 of them were medically checked. It was considered that the babies received an average of 1000 calories of nutrition if exposed to the famine in the uterus. The pregnancy period was then divided into 3 periods of 16 weeks each, early, mid and late pregnancy, and the data were then compared to those babies who were born before or after the famine took place.
Results
It was found that mortality rate of those people who were exposed to famine during late pregnancy was the highest, 14.6%. Those people exposed to famine during mid and early pregnancy had a lower mortality rate of 11.2% and 11.5% respectively. The main difference in these mortality rates were due to famine effects during the first year of their life and their death was mainly due to malnutrition and infections. This research also found that famine exposures also affected the sex ratios of the babies born alive. The percent of girls that were born alive were much more than that of the boys and this was due to exposure to famine during late pregnancy.
Conclusions
We can conclude that these findings are in accordance with the hypothesis as it has been established that chronic diseases are due to adaptations of the fetus suffering from malnutrition and due to maternal malnutrition. The effects of malnutrition depend on the various periods during pregnancy.
What does it all mean?
This means that those babies who were affected by the famine while in their mothers womb and those whose mothers were affected by famine while being pregnant have an increased chance of suffering from various chronic degenerative diseases later in life.
Significance
The significance of this study is that it suggests that maternal malnutrition may affect the health of the baby in later life even though it may not affect the babys size or weight at birth.
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