Cohort profile: the Dutch famine birth cohort (DFBC)- a prospective birth cohort study in the Netherlands.

Purpose: The Dutch famine birth cohort study was set up to investigate the effects of acute maternal undernutrition of the 1944-1945 Dutch famine during the specific stages of gestation on later health, with a particular focus on chronic cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, ageing and mental health.

Participants: The Dutch famine birth cohort consists of 2414 singletons born alive and at term in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam around the time of the Dutch famine (1943-1947) whose birth records have been kept. The cohort has been traced and studied since 1994, when the first data collection started.