Dutch famine birth cohort study (DFBC)
The DFBC was set up to investigate the long-term effects of prenatal exposure to the Dutch famine of 1944–1945 (hongerwinter) that impacted western parts of the Netherlands towards the end of World War II. A total of 2,414 singletons born alive between 1943 and 1947 in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis hospital in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, were included in the cohort. The cohort comprised both individuals exposed to famine in early, mid, or late gestation and individuals prenatally unexposed to famine (born before the famine or conceived after the famine), who acted as a control group within the cohort. The participants were followed up for over 25 years in six study waves from around age 50 in 1994-1996 to age 74 in 2019-2020.
Study design
Cohort, Cohort - birth
Number of participants at first data collection
2,414 (participants)
Age at first data collection
47 - 53 years (participants)
Participant year of birth
1943 - 1947 (participants)
Participant sex
All
Representative sample at baseline?
No
Sample features
Country
Year of first data collection
1994
1943 (birth records)
Primary Institutions
Amsterdam University Medical Center (Amsterdam UMC)
Profile paper DOI
Funders
Amsterdam University Medical Center (Amsterdam UMC)
Diabetes Fonds
Dutch Heart Foundation (Hartstichting)
Dutch Research Council (Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, NWO)
European Commission
Ongoing?
No
Data types collected
- Computer, paper or task testing (e.g. cognitive testing, theory of mind doll task, attention computer tasks)
- Interview – face-to-face
- Physical or biological assessment (e.g. blood, saliva, gait, grip strength, anthropometry)
- Secondary data
- None
- Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Healthcare data
- Medical birth registry
- Mortality data
Engagement
Keywords
Consortia and dataset groups
