The Dutch Famine ('Hunger Winter') of 1944-1945 provides a unique opportunity to identify early life determinants of life course health and well-being. To date, studies have concentrated on health and mortality outcomes in ~45,000 army recruits who were examined at age 18 in the early 1960s. Famine exposure in these men can be inferred from place and date of birth. Funding is now requested to link a wide variety of socio-economic outcomes (employment, wages, and disability benefits) from government sources to our studied population. The study is collaboration between epidemiologists and demographers and economists (Dr. Heckman, University of Chicago). The newly linked data will be analyzed with state-of-the-art epidemiologic and econometric approaches to reliably identify, estimate, and interpret the effects of an early life shock throughout the lifecycle. This work will integrate currently separated research traditions from the medical and social sciences and lead to a better understanding of 'fetal programming' and its implications.
In this study we will utilize the unique quasi-experimental setting of the Dutch Hunger Winter of 1944-45 for a collaborative study of epidemiologists, demographers, and economists to study long term health and economic outcomes after disruptions in early life. The study includes data linkages across multiple outcome domains and state-of-the art analytic approaches to integrate currently separated research traditions from the medical and social sciences. This will lead to a better understanding of 'fetal programming' and its implications.
