[Developing indices for caloric restriction related to World War II--a pilot study]

Area of Science:

• Epidemiology
• Nutritional Science
• Oncology

Context:

• Assessing long-term health effects of historical caloric restriction (CR) is challenging.
• World War II (WW II) Jewish populations experienced significant, variable CR.
• Previous studies on CR and breast cancer risk often lack historical specificity.

Purpose:

• To develop and validate novel research tools for assessing historical CR exposure.
• To evaluate CR exposure in Jewish women survivors of WW II.
• To enable comparative analysis of CR and breast cancer risk in a unique cohort.

Summary:

• A pilot study utilized a detailed questionnaire for European-born Israeli women (1926-45) who lived through WW II.
• CR exposure was assessed using proxy variables including individual hunger, self-perceived hunger, and hunger symptoms.
• Breast cancer cases reported higher scores for all hunger-related metrics compared to population-based controls.

Impact:

• The developed research tools are suitable for comparative assessment of CR exposure in case-control studies.
• This methodology can inform future research on the long-term health consequences of wartime nutritional stress.
• Findings contribute to understanding the complex relationship between historical CR and breast cancer etiology.