Harsh social conditions and perinatal survival: an age-period-cohort analysis of the World War II occupation of Norway.
OBJECTIVE
The hypothesis was tested that unfavorable social conditions are associated with poor perinatal survival through direct effects on pregnancy or, more indirectly, through effects on mothers born under such conditions. The occupation of Norway by Nazi Germany was used as a period of social hardship.


METHODS
Data from Norwegian vital statistics and the Medical Birth Registry were used to describe perinatal mortality during World War II and also a generation later, among babies born to mothers who had themselves been born during the war. Logistic regression was used to identify a possible cohort effect among mothers born in 1940 through 1944 compared with mothers born before or after that period.


RESULTS
Harsh conditions in Norway during the occupation increased childhood mortality. However, perinatal mortality declined during that period. Likewise, no adverse effect was seen on the survival of babies born to mothers who had themselves been born during the war (odds ratio = 1.00; 95% confidence interval = 0.96, 1.04).


CONCLUSIONS
We find no evidence that wartime conditions in Norway impaired perinatal survival, either directly or through an effect on women born during the war. These data underscore how little is known about the ways that social conditions influence perinatal mortality.
Wilcox
A J
AJ
Epidemiology Branch, NIEHS, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709.
Skjaerven
R
R
Irgens
L M
LM
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009026:Mortality; D009664:Norway; D016017:Odds Ratio; D011247:Pregnancy; D011297:Prenatal Exposure Delayed Effects; D012924:Social Conditions; D014857:Warfare