Objectives Season of birth, an exogenous indicator of early life environment, has been related to higher risk of adverse psychiatric outcomes but the findings for Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have been inconsistent. We investigated whether the month or season of birth are associated with AD.
Methods A nationwide nested case-control study including all community-dwellers with clinically verified AD diagnosed in 2005 to 2012 (n=70 719) and up to four age- sex- and region of residence-matched controls (n=282 862) residing in Finland. Associations between month and season of birth and AD were studied with conditional logistic regression.
Results Month of birth was not associated with AD (p=0.09). No strong associations were observed with season (p=0.13), although in comparison to winter births (December-February) summer births (June-August) were associated with higher odds of AD (odds ratio, 1.03; 95% confidence interval, 1.00 to 1.05). However, the absolute difference in prevalence in winter births was only 0.5% (prevalence of those born in winter were 31.7% and 32.2% for cases and controls, respectively).
Conclusions Although our findings do not support the hypothesis that season of birth is related to AD/dementia risk, they do not invalidate the developmental origins of health and disease hypothesis in late-life cognition. It is possible that season does not adequately capture the early life circumstances, or that other (postnatal) risk factors such as lifestyle or socioeconomic factors overrule the impact of prenatal and perinatal factors.
Summary
Citations
Citations to this article as recorded by
Risk factors for the alzheimer's disease. Systematic review and meta-analysis G. R. Khasanova, M. Sh. Muzaffarova Fundamental and Clinical Medicine.2024; 8(4): 101. CrossRef
Do prenatal factors shape the risk for dementia?: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence for the prenatal origins of dementia Aline Marileen Wiegersma, Amber Boots, Miranda W. Langendam, Jacqueline Limpens, Susan D. Shenkin, Aniko Korosi, Tessa J. Roseboom, Susanne R. de Rooij Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology.2023;[Epub] CrossRef
Season of birth and vulnerability to the pathology of Alzheimer's disease: an in vivo positron emission tomography study Fumihiko Yasuno, Hiroyuki Minami Psychogeriatrics.2022; 22(4): 445. CrossRef
Season-of-birth phenomenon in health and longevity: epidemiologic evidence and mechanistic considerations Alexander Vaiserman Journal of Developmental Origins of Health and Disease.2021; 12(6): 849. CrossRef
Understanding the Link Between Maternal Overnutrition, Cardio-Metabolic Dysfunction and Cognitive Aging Daria Peleg-Raibstein Frontiers in Neuroscience.2021;[Epub] CrossRef
Season of birth and the risk of dementia in the population‐based Rotterdam Study Sanne S. Mooldijk, Silvan Licher, Elisabeth J. Vinke, Meike W. Vernooij, Mohammad Kamran Ikram, Mohammad Arfan Ikram European Journal of Epidemiology.2021; 36(5): 497. CrossRef
Month of birth and mental disorders: A population‐based study and validation using global meta‐analysis Chih‐Wei Hsu, Ping‐Tao Tseng, Yu‐Kang Tu, Pao‐Yen Lin, Chi‐Fa Hung, Chih‐Sung Liang, Yun‐Yu Hsieh, Yao‐Hsu Yang, Liang‐Jen Wang, Hung‐Yu Kao Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica.2021; 144(2): 153. CrossRef
Association Between Season of Birth and Cognitive Aging in Older Adults: Pan-European Population-Based Study on 70,000 Individuals Matej Kucera, Katrin Wolfova, Pavla Cermakova Journal of Alzheimer's Disease.2021; 82(4): 1703. CrossRef
Season of birth and dementia: Findings from Chinese elderly based on a nationwide data Ruoxi Ding, Ping He, Xinming Song, Xiaoying Zheng American Journal of Human Biology.2020;[Epub] CrossRef