In a cohort of 14 193 men and women born in Uppsala in 1915–1929, we studied the associations of fetal growth rate and length of gestation with the risk of death from ischaemic heart disease (ICD 7: 420–422; 8 and 9: 410–414; 10: I20–25) and cerebrovascular disease (ICD 7: 330–334; 8 and 9: 430–438, 10: I60–69). Occlusive strokes include ICD7: 332–334, ICD8: 432–436, ICD9: 433–436 and ICD10: I63–66. Data on deaths and emigrations were obtained by linkage to the population and death registers.

To investigate which facets of parent and grandparent socio-economic position (SEP) are associated with eating disorders (ED), and how this varies by ED subtype and over time. Total-population cohort study of 1,040,165 females and 1,098,188 males born 1973–1998 in Sweden, and followed for inpatient or outpatient ED diagnoses until 2010. Proportional hazards models estimated associations with parental education, income and social class, and with grandparental education and income. 15,747 females and 1051 males in our sample received an ED diagnosis, with rates increasing in both sexes over time. ED incidence in females was independently predicted by greater educational level among the father, mother and maternal grandparents, but parent social class and parental income showed little or no independent effect. The associations with education were equally strong for anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa and ED not-otherwise-specified, and had increased over time. Among males, an apparently similar pattern was seen with respect to anorexia nervosa, but non-anorexia ED showed no association with parental education and an inverse association with parental income. Family history of education predicts ED in gender- and disorder-specific ways, and in females the effect is observed across multiple generations. Particularly given that these effects may have grown stronger in more recent cohorts, these findings highlight the need for further research to clarify the underlying mechanisms and identify promising targets for prevention. Speculatively, one such mechanism may involve greater internal and external demands for academic success in highly educated families.

The population of Leningrad suffered from severe starvation, cold and psychological stress during the siege in World War II in 1941–1944. We investigated the long‐term effects of the siege on cancer mortality in 3,901 men and 1,429 women, born between 1910 and 1940. All study subjects were residents of St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, between 1975 and 1982. One third of them had experienced the siege as children, adolescents or young adults (age range, 1–31 years at the peak of starvation in 1941–1942). Associations of siege exposure with risk of death from cancer were studied using a multivariable Cox regression, stratified by gender and period of birth, adjusted for age, smoking, alcohol and social characteristics, from 1975 to 1977 (men) and 1980 to 1982, respectively (women), until the end of 2005. Women who were 10–18 years old at the peak of starvation were taller as adults (age‐adjusted difference, 1.7 cm; 95% CI, 0.5–3.0) and had a higher risk of dying from breast cancer compared with unexposed women born during the same period (age‐adjusted HR, 9.9; 95% CI, 1.1–86.5). Mortality from prostate cancer was nonsignificantly higher in exposed men. The experience of severe starvation and stress during childhood and adolescence may have long‐term effects on cancer in surviving men and women.