Fetal health stagnation: Have health conditions in utero improved in the United States and Western and Northern Europe over the past 150 years?

Schneider, Eric B.

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.02.018

Cited by 24 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“… Hogue et al, 2013 : Positive relation between self-reported significant life events and loss >20 weeks. Inferred from live births or fertility histories 8 10 12 Schneider, 2017 : Using 19 th century data, liveborn infants in “high” stillbirth rate years show a heavier than expected birthweight distribution. Catalano, Bruckner, Marks, & Eskenazi, 2006 : Sex ratio in New York City fell months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.…”

Section: Typologymentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Schneider (2017) conducted a detailed historical analysis of annual stillbirth rates and birthweight distributions in Boston for the years 1872–1900. He examined the differences in the birthweight distribution of live births in years classified as “high” and “low” rates of stillbirth.…”

Section: Epidemic Antecedents Of Selection In Uteromentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas human health and cohort lifespan have improved dramatically over the last 150 years, historical evidence shows relatively scant improvements in fetal health over the same period ( Schneider, 2017 ). This circumstance, combined with the literature summarized in this typology, suggests that selection in utero remains an important process in shaping cohort health.…”

Section: Summary Implications and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selection in utero and population health: Theory and typology of research

Bruckner

Catalano

2018

SSM - Population Health

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Public health researchers may assume, based on the fetal origins literature, that “scarring” of birth cohorts describes the population response to modern-day stressors. We contend, based on extensive literature concerned with selection in utero, that this assumption remains questionable. At least a third and likely many more of human conceptions fail to yield a live birth. Those that survive to birth, moreover, do not represent their conception cohort. Increasing data availability has led to an improved understanding of selection in utero and its implications for population health. The literature describing selection in utero, however, receives relatively little attention from social scientists. We aim to draw attention to the rich theoretical and empirical literature on selection in utero by offering a typology that organizes this diverse work along dimensions we think important, if not familiar, to those studying population health. We further use the typology to identify important gaps in the literature. This work should interest social scientists for two reasons. First, phenomena of broad scholarly interest (i.e., social connectivity, bereavement) affect the extent and timing of selection in utero. Second, the life-course health of a cohort depends in part on the strength of such selection. We conclude by identifying new research directions and with a reconciliation of the apparent contradiction between the “fetal origins” literature and that describing selection in utero.

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Section: Typologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Epidemic Antecedents Of Selection In Uteromentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary Implications and Future Directionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Selection in utero and population health: Theory and typology of research

Bruckner

Catalano

2018

SSM - Population Health

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“…Further, KLS subjects with TRANK1 polymorphism have reported increased birth difficulties (summarized in Dataset S5). We hypothesize that improved perinatal outcomes that have occurred in the past 50 years may explain this tendency (34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39); https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf; https://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa14/health-status-behaviors/infants/infant-mortality.html).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As indicated above, our analysis revealed a significant association of the TRANK1 variant with birth difficulties in KLS patients but not controls. As perinatal care has improved over the last decades (34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39); https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf; https://mchb.hrsa.gov/chusa14/health-status-behaviors/infants/infant-mortality.html), most notably in the 1990-2000s, we asked if the year of birth was an essential factor correlated to KLS in conjunction with TRANK1 rs71947865 variant. A possible birth year dependent TRANK1 interaction is also supported by the recent largest bipolar disorder GWAS ever published, where it was noteworthy that the strong TRANK1 SNP association found in the discovery sample in bipolar disorder cases did not replicate in a new, presumably more recent, bipolar GWAS replication set (15), a caveat being that birth year data was not made available in this study (15) for all but one replication cohort where the birth year range was 1981-2005.…”

Section: The Trank1 Association Is Birth Year Dependentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kleine Levin syndrome is associated with birth difficulties and genetic variants in the TRANK1 gene loci

Ambati

Hillary

Leu‐Semenescu

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Kleine-Levin Syndrome (KLS) is a rare disorder characterized by severe episodic hypersomnia, with cognitive impairment accompanied by apathy or disinhibition. Pathophysiology is unknown, although imaging studies indicate decreased activity in hypothalamic/thalamic areas during episodes. Familial occurrence is increased, and risk is associated with reports of a difficult birth. We conducted a worldwide case-control genome wide association study in 673 KLS cases collected over 14 years, and ethnically matched 15,341 control individuals. We found a strong genome-wide significant association (OR=1.48,rs71947865,p=8.6×10−9) with 20 single nucleotide polymorphisms encompassing a 35kb region located in the 3’ region of TRANK1 gene, previously associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Strikingly, KLS cases with TRANK1 rs71947865 variant had significantly increased reports of a difficult birth. As perinatal outcomes have dramatically improved over the last 40 years, we further stratified our sample by birth years and found that recent cases had a significantly reduced TRANK1 rs71947865 association. While theTRANK1 rs71947865 association did not replicate in the entire follow-up sample of 171 KLS cases, the TRANK1 rs71947865 was significantly associated with KLS in the subset follow-up sample of 59 KLS cases who reported birth difficulties (OR=1.54;p=0.01). Genetic liability of KLS as explained by polygenic risk scores was increased (pseudo r2=0.15;p<2.0×10−22 at p=0.5 threshold) in the follow-up sample. Pathway analysis of genetic associations identified enrichment of circadian regulation pathway genes in KLS cases. Our results suggest links between KLS, behavioral rhythmicity, and bipolar disorder, and indicates that the TRANK1 polymorphisms in conjunction with reported birth difficulties may predispose to KLS.Significance StatementGenetic markers in TRANK1 gene and its vicinity have been weakly associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (10% increased risk). We found that the same polymorphisms are associated with Kleine-Levin Syndrome (50% increased risk), a rare sleep disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of severe hypersomnia and cognitive abnormalities. Response to lithium treatment are suggestive of a pathophysiological overlap between KLS and bipolar disorder. The study also shows that variants in the TRANK1 gene region may predispose to KLS when patients have had a difficult birth, suggesting that TRANK1 gene region modulate newborns’ response to brain injury, with consequences for mental and neurological health in adulthood. Another possibility may be that the polymorphism impact birth and KLS.

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The stillbirth sex ratio as a marker of population health among live‐born males in Denmark, 1835‐1923

Bruckner

Singh

Mortensen

et al. 2019

American J Hum Biol

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Objectives We know little about whether an elevated stillbirth sex ratio (ratio of male to female stillbirths) gauges stronger selection in utero against frail male gestations and therefore predicts greater male infant survival. An alternative scenario could involve a “low endowment” case in which pregnancy cohorts show both excess male stillbirths and elevated mortality risk among male live births. We exploit the longest sex‐specific stillbirth series (Denmark, 1835‐1923) to explore whether annual deviations in age‐specific male mortality vary with the annual cohort's stillbirth sex ratio. Methods We applied autoregressive, integrated, moving average time series methods to annual counts of age‐specific male mortality in Denmark. We derived the independent variable, the stillbirth sex ratio, from only late stillbirths (ie, 28th week and thereafter) owing to data availability. Methods control for secular patterns as well as shared antecedents of male and female mortality. Results Cohort male infant mortality varies positively with the stillbirth sex ratio (coef = 0.0081, standard error [SE] = 0.0019, P < 0.001). This positive relation persists into childhood (ie, ages 1‐4.99 years) but attenuates with age. Discussion We infer support for the “low endowment” argument in that high stillbirth sex ratios predict a relatively greater risk of mortality among males which ultimately survive to birth. These findings provide evidence that the stillbirth sex ratio may serve as a marker of population health among male cohorts.

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Fetal health stagnation: Have health conditions in utero improved in the United States and Western and Northern Europe over the past 150 years?

Cited by 24 publications

References 39 publications

Selection in utero and population health: Theory and typology of research

Selection in utero and population health: Theory and typology of research

Kleine Levin syndrome is associated with birth difficulties and genetic variants in the TRANK1 gene loci

The stillbirth sex ratio as a marker of population health among live‐born males in Denmark, 1835‐1923

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