TY  - JOUR
A1  - Hermanussen, Michael
A1  - Weick, Stefan
A1  - Scheffler, Christiane
T1  - Severe postwar malnutrition did not have a negative impact on the earnings and subsequent pensions of German men born in 1945-1948
JF  - Acta paediatrica : nurturing the child
N2  - Aim: Poverty has often been associated with malnutrition, stunted growth, impaired cognitive development and poor earnings. We studied whether these associations were found in German men born and raised shortly after World War II during severe and long-standing nationwide malnutrition. Methods: We analysed German old-age pension payments, as a rough measure of lifetime earnings, in German men born from 1932 to 1960 and compared the at-risk-of-poverty rates of German men born in 1945-1948 versus 1935-1938 and 1955-1958. Results: Substantially fewer women worked during this period and their longer life expectancy makes their pension payments difficult to interpret. We therefore limited our analysis to men. Men born in the 1930s received the highest monthly old-age pensions and these declined slightly in men born from 1945 to 1948, indicating a minute impairment in work-related income in cohorts born shortly after the war. We also found that there was no evidence for increased at-risk-of-poverty rates in men born in 1945-1948 versus those born in 1935-1938 and in 1955-1958. Conclusion: Being born and raised following World War II was associated with a minute work and pension impairment that was not visible in the at-risk-of-poverty rates. These findings question statements associating early childhood nutrition and future lifetime earnings.
KW  - Brain development
KW  - Labour market outcome
KW  - Malnutrition
KW  - Old-age pension
KW  - Poverty
Y1  - 2017
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.13945
SN  - 0803-5253
SN  - 1651-2227
VL  - 106
SP  - 1630
EP  - 1634
PB  - Wiley
CY  - Hoboken
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Li, Jian
A1  - Wang, Zi-Neng
A1  - Chen, You-Peng
A1  - Dong, Yun-Peng
A1  - Shuai, Han-Lin
A1  - Xiao, Xiao-Min
A1  - Reichetzeder, Christoph
A1  - Hocher, Berthold
T1  - Late gestational maternal serum cortisol is inversely associated with fetal brain growth
JF  - Neuroscience & biobehavioral reviews : official journal of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society
N2  - To analyze the association between fetal brain growth and late gestational blood serum cortisol in normal pregnancy.Blood total cortisol was quantified at delivery in 432 Chinese mother/child pairs. Key inclusion criteria of the cohort were: no structural anomalies of the newborn, singleton pregnancy, no alcohol abuse, no drug abuse or history of smoking no hypertensive disorders and no impairment of glucose tolerance and no use of steroid medication during pregnancy. Differential ultrasound examination of the fetal body was done in early (gestational day 89.95 +/- 7.31), middle (gestational day 160.17 16.12) and late pregnancy (gestational day 268.89 +/- 12.42). Newborn's cortisol was not correlated with any of the ultrasound measurements during pregnancy nor with birth weight. Multivariable regression analysis, considering timing of the ultrasound examination, the child's sex, maternal BMI, maternal age, maternal body weight at delivery, the timing of cortisol measurement and maternal uterine contraction states, revealed that maternal serum total cortisol was significantly negative correlated with ultrasound parameters describing the fetal brain: late biparietal diameter (R-2 =0.512, p =0.009), late head circumference (R-2 = 0.498, p= 0.001), middle biparietal diameter (R-2= 0.819, p = 0.013), middle cerebellum transverse diameter R-2 = 0.76, p= 0.014) and early biparietal diameter(R-2 = 0.819, p = 0.013). The same analysis revealed that birth weight as well as ultrasound parameters such as abdominal circumference and femur length were not correlated to maternal cortisol levels.
 In conclusion, our study demonstrates that maternal cortisol secretion within physiological ranges may be inversely correlated to fetal brain growth but not to birth weight. It remains to be demonstrated whether maternal cortisol secretion negatively influencing fetal brain growth translates to adverse neurological outcomes in later life.
KW  - Brain development
KW  - Fetal programming
KW  - Cortisol Maternal cortisol
KW  - Head circumference
KW  - Biparietal diameter
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.12.006
SN  - 0149-7634
VL  - 36
IS  - 3
SP  - 1085
EP  - 1092
PB  - Elsevier
CY  - Oxford
ER  -