War-related excess mortality in The Netherlands, 1944–45: New estimates of famine- and non-famine-related deaths from national death records

Despite there being several estimates for famine-related deaths in the west of The Netherlands during the last stage of World War II, no such information exists for war-related excess mortality among the civilian population from other areas of the country. Previously unavailable data files from Statistics Netherlands allow researchers to estimate the number of war-related excess deaths during the last stage of the war in the whole country. This study uses a seasonal-adjusted mortality model combined with a difference-in-difference approach to estimate the number of excess deaths in the period between January 1944 and July 1945 at a total of close to 91,000 (75%) excess deaths. Almost half of all war-related excess mortality during the last year of the war occurred outside the west

Accelerated biological aging six decades after prenatal famine exposure

To test the hypothesis that early-life adversity accelerates the pace of biological aging, we analyzed data from the Dutch Hunger Winter Families Study (DHWFS, N = 951). DHWFS is a natural-experiment birth-cohort study of survivors of in-utero exposure to famine conditions caused by the German occupation of the Western Netherlands in Winter 1944 to 1945, matched controls, and their siblings. We conducted DNA methylation analysis of blood samples collected when the survivors were aged 58 to quantify biological aging using the DunedinPACE, GrimAge, and PhenoAge epigenetic clocks. Famine survivors had faster DunedinPACE, as compared with controls. This effect was strongest among women. Results were similar for GrimAge, although effect-sizes were smaller. We observed no differences in PhenoAge between survivors and controls. Famine effects were not accounted for by blood-cell composition and were similar for individuals exposed early and later in gestation. Findings suggest in-utero undernutrition may accelerate biological aging in later life.Molecular Epidemiolog