Maternal household crowding during pregnancy and the offspring's risk of schizophrenia

Kimhy, David; Harlap, Susan; Fennig, Shmuel; Deutsch, Lisa; Draiman, Benjamin G.; Corcoran, Cheryl; Goetz, Deborah; Nahon, Daniella; Malaspina, Dolores

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2006.04.017

« Previous Next »Schizophrenia Research
Volume 86, Issue 1 , Pages 23-29, September 2006

Maternal household crowding during pregnancy and the offspring's risk of schizophrenia

David Kimhy
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
- Corresponding author. Department of Psychiatry, Unit 2, Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10032, USA. Tel.: +1 212 543 6817; fax: +1 212 543 6176.
Susan Harlap
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
Shmuel Fennig
- Shalvata Mental Health Center and the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel
Lisa Deutsch
- Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Public Health, Jerusalem, Israel
Benjamin G. Draiman
- Department of Social Work, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
Cheryl Corcoran
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
Deborah Goetz
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA
Daniella Nahon
- Research Evaluation and Planning Division, Mental Health Services, Ministry of Health, Jerusalem, Israel
Dolores Malaspina
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University, New York, NY, USA
- Department of Medical Genetics, New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York, NY, USA

Received 15 March 2006; received in revised form 18 April 2006; accepted 21 April 2006.

Abstract

Background

Animal models of schizophrenia suggest a link between maternal crowding during pregnancy and increased risk of the offspring to develop physiological, developmental, and behavioral abnormalities that are comparable to those observed in schizophrenia. We tested the hypothesis that a similar link is present in humans.

Method

We investigated whether prenatal exposure to household crowding was associated with the risk of schizophrenia in a sub-cohort of the Jerusalem Perinatal Study (JPS) consisting 11,015 individuals born between 1964 and 1976. During these years mothers participated in face to face interviews in early pregnancy. The prenatal and birth data, including the number of rooms and individuals living in the mothers' household, was cross-linked with the Israel Psychiatric Registry by ministry personnel.

Results

104 schizophrenia cases were identified in the cohort. Offspring who, while in utero, their mother resided in a household with five or more individuals had RR of 1.47 (95% CI: 0.99–2.16, p=0.05) to develop schizophrenia, compared to those whose mother resided with four or fewer individuals. However, when adjusted for paternal age, the RR was reduced to 1.18 (95% CI: 0.76–1.84, p=0.46). The number of rooms in the household and the household crowding during pregnancy did not significantly impact the offspring's risk to develop schizophrenia.

Conclusion

The link between maternal household crowding during pregnancy and the offspring's risk of schizophrenia was explained primarily by the impact of paternal age. The authors discuss the results in view of findings from animal and human studies.

Keywords: Schizophrenia, Pregnancy, Crowding, Paternal age, Stress, Infection