Table of contents
Season of birth and biomarkers of early-life environment
Karolina Miłkowska, Ilona Nenko, Magdalena Klimek, Andrzej Galbarczyk, Grazyna Jasienska
American Journal of Human Biology https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23532
Early-life conditions play an important role in human development, affecting health status and survival. Conditions in utero partly depend on the external environment and thus vary in relation to the season of birth. The aim of this study was to investigate if people born in different seasons of the year differ in values of biomarkers that reflect conditions during fetal development.
Methods
The study was conducted among Polish rural women recruited at the Mogielica Human Ecology Study Site. The participants were 234 women aged 45 to 92 (mean = 60.2; SD = 10.44). The indicators of early-life environment analyzed in the study were: Absolute Finger Ridge Count (AFRC), the difference between mean number of ridge counts in both thumbs and both little fingers (Md15), overall facial fluctuating asymmetry (OFA), central facial asymmetry (CFA), right and left hand 2D:4D.
Results
Values of biomarkers of fetal development did not vary among groups of women born in different seasons of the year.
Conclusions
Lack of differences in values of biomarkers according to birth season may indicate that:
- (a) season of birth is not a good indicator of early-life conditions;
- (b) tested biomarkers do not reliably reflect the prenatal environment;
- (c) season of birth does not fully overlap with the sensitive periods of biomarker development and thus fails to capture differences in developmental conditions.