The Dutch Famine of 1944–1945: A Pathophysiological Model of Long-Term Consequences of Wasting Disease
Abstract
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The tragic circumstances of the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-1945 created a unique opportunity to study the relation between exposure to prenatal famine and health in adult life. This review addresses the literature on the effects of maternal malnutrition during the different periods of gestation and childhood on health in adult life. RECENT FINDINGS: Exposure to famine during gestation resulted in increases in impaired glucose tolerance, obesity, coronary heart disease, atherogenic lipid profile, hypertension, microalbuminuria, schizophrenia, antisocial personality and affective disorders. Exposure to famine during childhood resulted in changes in reproductive function, earlier menopause, changes in insulin-like growth factor-I and increases in breast cancer. SUMMARY: Exposure to famine during gestation and childhood has life-long effects on health, and these effects vary depending on the timing of exposure as well as evolution of the recovery period.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Studies on grandchildren of women exposed to famine in utero showed that grandsons of women malnourished during early pregnancy tended to have higher birth weights, while exposure in late pregnancy did not affect birth weight.
“Studies on the grandchildren of women exposed to famine in utero showed that grandsons of women malnourished during early pregnancy tended to have higher birth weights, while exposure in late pregnancy did not affect birth weight [169,170,171,172].”
From Maternal Overnutrition and Fetal Programming: Long-Term Metabolic, Cognitive, and Epigenetic Consequences (2026) · cites this paper as [172]
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mitochondrial dysfunction and pathology in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
Clay, H. B., Daws, S., & Konradi, C. (2011) · International Journal of Developmental Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2010.08.007 · Cited by 399 · see citing works
The Developmental Origins of Health and Disease (DOHAD)
Lacagnina, S. (2020) · American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine · doi:10.1177/1559827619879694 · Cited by 244 · see citing works
Wells, J. C. K. (2009) · Proceedings of the Nutrition Society · doi:10.1017/s0029665109001086 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Schiera, G., Macajone, G., Volpes, S., Greco, L., Di Liegro, C. M., Serio, G., Caradonna, F., & Naselli, F. (2026) · Cells · doi:10.3390/cells15040366 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
- Authors
- Kyle, U. G., & Pichard, C.
- Affiliations
- University Hospital of Geneva (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Pichard, Claude
- ORCID
- Pichard, Claude
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care
- Published
- 2006-07
- Volume
- 9
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 388-394
- ISSN
- 1363-1950 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2083829767
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 20 · 2015: 16 · 2014: 13 · 2013: 16 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 1.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition & Metabolic Care (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Birth, Development, and Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Physiology › Dietary Effects on Health
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pediatrics, Perinatology and Child Health › Prenatal Substance Exposure Effects
- Keywords
- Dutch Hunger Winter, prenatal famine exposure, maternal malnutrition, long-term health effects, impaired glucose tolerance, obesity, coronary artery disease, atherogenic lipid profile, hypertension, microalbuminuria, schizophrenia, antisocial personality, mood disorders, reproductive function, menopause, insulin-like growth factor I, breast cancer, developmental origins of health and disease
- MeSH terms
- Breast Neoplasms, Coronary Disease, Female, Humans, Models, Biological, Obesity, Pregnancy, Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects, Starvation, Time Factors, Glucose Intolerance, Wasting Disease, Chronic, Maternal Nutritional Physiological Phenomena
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
