diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, other metabolic disorders, and decreased cognitive function later in life (Argente, Mehls, & Barrios, 2010; Barker & Clark, 1997; de Rooij, et al., 2010). In addition, researchers found that maternal weight loss or moderate to low weight gain was significantly associated with infant birth weight, length, and other measures of fetal growth status, as well as with trimester of exposure to famine (A. D. Stein, Ravelli, & Lumey, 1995). In relation to psychological outcomes, increased risk of affective disorders has been found in males exposed to famine during their second trimester of pregnancy (Brown, Susser, Lin, Neugebauer, & Gorman, 1995). Findings such as these further underscore the importance of considering timing of prenatal exposure to adverse conditions, such as famine, as well as potential confounding elements, such as gender of the infant, when looking at outcomes across development. Birth cohorts such as the Dutch Famine Birth Cohort have provided researchers with many of the earliest tools necessary to investigate epidemiological associations between adverse intrauterine conditions and postnatal health and disease.
