[Famine in the Spanish civil war and mortality from coronary heart disease: a perspective from Barker's hypothesis].
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the famine experienced during the Spanish civil war and immediate postwar period influenced mortality from coronary heart disease (CHD) in persons born in this period, following the lines of Barker's hypothesis on fetal programming of chronic diseases in adult life.


METHODS
Using CHD mortality data by age and sex for 1990-2002, annual and age-adjusted rates were calculated by the direct method. Poisson regressions were used to estimate period, age and cohort effects by year of birth (1918-1957).


RESULTS
During the study period, CHD mortality fell by a yearly average of -2.3% in both sexes and in all ages yearly. This trend was influenced by both cohort and period effects (p<0.001); an increased risk was observed for both sexes and in all ages in the deaths corresponding to persons born during the war and postwar years when the famine was most intense (1937, 1940, 1943 and 1945).


CONCLUSIONS
The results obtained by studying yearly CHD mortality are compatible with those expected by Barker's hypothesis of the effect of nutritional stress during pregnancy. In addition to its human, economic and political costs, the Spanish civil war could also have had negative consequences for the health of persons born in this period.
González Zapata
Laura Inés
LI
Escuela de Nutrición y Dietética, Universidad de Antioquia, Medellín-Colombia. laurag@pijaos.udea.edu.co
Alvarez-Dardet Díaz
Carlos
C
Nolasco Bonmatí
Andreu
A
Pina Romero
José Aurelio
JA
Medrano
María José
MJ
D000368:Aged; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D047109:Fetal Development; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000401:mortality*; D013030:Spain; D013217:Starvation / Q000453:epidemiology*; D014857:Warfare