Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG

Channel Islands Occupation Birth Cohort Study

RESEARCH NEWS UPDATE (Spring 2001)

Health in later life of Channel Islanders born on Guernsey, Sark and Alderney between 1939 and 1946 - preliminary findings on men undergoing health examinations at the Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG

Since 1998, the Channel Islands Occupation Birth Cohort Study has been investigating the short- and longer-term health effects of the 1940-45 German Occupation. To this end, researchers based at the University of Cambridge, and latterly at the University of London, have been collaborating with the Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG to establish whether there is any evidence that men and women born on the Islands during this period have any increased risk of ill-health in later life.

The rationale for this investigation comes from research conducted in the Netherlands, which suggest that children conceived and/or born in those parts of the country experiencing severe food shortages following the Allied invasion in 1944, appear to have an increased risk of raised blood pressure and "glucose intolerance" - both of which are implicated in cardiovascular disease. Similar food shortages occurred on the Channel Islands, since the Allied liberation of France imposed a siege on the German forces there. However, the absolute level of food available on the Channel Islands appears, by all accounts, to have been substantively better than that in the most isolated regions of Holland, while expectant and nursing mothers together with young children received additional rations throughout this period, augmented by red cross parcels.

To establish whether these, more modest, food shortages in the Channel Islands may have had any long-term effect on the health of Channel Islanders conceived and/or born during this period, we compared blood pressure measurements and blood glucose concentrations of individuals undergoing health screens at the Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG. To protect the confidentiality of medical records linked to births registered on Guernsey during this period, the Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG undertook to match the records involved and only released anonymised and un-traceable data for analysis by our researchers. Matching records for women has proved particularly difficult and will take some time to complete, because those who got married were usually screened under their married as opposed to the (maiden sur)names recorded in the birth registers. However, it has been possible to conduct a preliminary analysis of screening data for men born on the Islands between 1939 through 1946 - comparing those conceived, born and growing up before, during and after the Occupation. After taking into account a number of factors (such as age and weight, smoking behaviour and stress) which also affect blood pressure and blood glucose concentrations, we were delighted to find no significant increase in the risk of high blood pressure or "glucose intolerance" (the latter a marker for late-onset diabetes) amongst those conceived or born during the worst period of food shortage (i.e. mid-1944 through mid-1945). To the contrary, our preliminary findings suggest that, if anything, those born before the Occupation or early in the Occupation displayed marginally worse health. By "marginally worse", we mean very slight differences that do not indicate any effect of clinical concern. Indeed, these results are not altogether surprising, as it is well known that raised blood pressure and glucose intolerance tend to increase as people get older (all other things being equal), and those born in 1939, before the Occupation, are 7 years older than those born afterwards.

These preliminary findings confirm our earlier work which found no evidence of any increased rate of premature mortality (i.e. before the age of 55) from the sorts of chronic diseases thought to be more prevalent amongst people born in the worst affected regions of Holland around the same time (i.e. 1944-45). We are therefore increasingly confident that the ill-effects observed by the Dutch research are unlikely to have occurred amongst the better-nourished Channel Islands population. Nonetheless, to confirm these results, we are continuing our research: first, by including women in our analyses of the Guernsey Chest and Heart LBG's screening data; second by extending our work to people born off the Islands during the same period; third by encouraging all Channel Islanders born between 1939 and 1946, on or off the Islands to complete a supplementary health questionnaire.

If you have not already completed a questionnaire and would like to do so, please contact Dr George Ellison, the Study's Coordinator at: 01534 839966 or write to the "Wartime Birth Study", P.O. Box 172, St Helier JE2 9RD. We look forward to hearing from you.

(The Channel Islands Occupation Birth Cohort Study Research Team comprises: George Ellison [Coordinator], Michelle Kelly, Ruth Travis, Matthew Phillips, Adèle Langlois, Mary Hervé, Val Garnier and Don Le Tissier).