IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i7p2210-d337052.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exposure to Chinese Famine in Fetal Life and the Risk of Dysglycemiain Adulthood

Author

Listed:
  • Yan Zhang

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Chao Song

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Meng Wang

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Weiyan Gong

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Yanning Ma

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Zheng Chen

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Ganyu Feng

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Rui Wang

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Hongyun Fang

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Jing Fan

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

  • Ailing Liu

    (National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 27 Nanwei Road, Xicheng District, Beijing 100050, China)

Abstract

Undernutrition in early life may have a long consequence of type 2 diabetes in adulthood. The current study was aimed to explore the association between famine exposure in fetal life during China’s Great Famine (1959–1961) and dysglycemia in adulthood. The cross-sectional data from 7830 adults from the 2010–2012 China National Nutrition and Health Surveillance was utilized. Participants who were born between 1960 and 1961 were selected as the exposed group, while the participants who were born in 1963 were selected as the unexposed group. Logistic regression was utilized to examine the relationship between fetal famine exposure and dysglycemia in adulthood. The prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the exposed and control group was 6.4% and 5.1%, respectively, and the risk of type 2 diabetes in the exposed group was 1.23 times higher than that of the control group (95%CI, 1.01–1.50; P = 0.042) in adulthood, and 1.40 times in the severely affected area (95%CI, 1.11–1.76; P = 0.004). The fasting plasma glucose of the exposed group was higher than that of the control group, which was only found in the severely affected area ( P = 0.014) and females ( P = 0.037). The association between famine and impaired fasting glucose was observed only in females (OR 1.31, 95%CI, 1.01–1.70; P = 0.040). Our results suggested that fetal exposure to Chinese famine increased the risk of dysglycemia in adulthood. This association was stronger in the severely affected area and females.

Suggested Citation

  • Yan Zhang & Chao Song & Meng Wang & Weiyan Gong & Yanning Ma & Zheng Chen & Ganyu Feng & Rui Wang & Hongyun Fang & Jing Fan & Ailing Liu, 2020. "Exposure to Chinese Famine in Fetal Life and the Risk of Dysglycemiain Adulthood," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(7), pages 1-11, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2210-:d:337052
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2210/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/7/2210/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zhehui Luo & Ren Mu & Xiaobo Zhang, 2006. "Famine and Overweight in China," Review of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 28(3), pages 296-304.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. He, Ping & Luo, Yanan & Ding, Ruoxi & Zheng, Xiaoying, 2022. "Is it just a cure? Re-evaluating the effects of prenatal exposure to the Great Chinese Famine on the risk of infectious diseases in adulthood," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Haiyong Liu, 2008. "The China health and nutrition survey: an important database for poverty and inequality research," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 6(4), pages 373-376, December.
    2. Douglas Almond & Lena Edlund & Hongbin Li & Junsen Zhang, 2007. "Long-Term Effects Of The 1959-1961 China Famine: Mainland China and Hong Kong," NBER Working Papers 13384, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    3. Song, Shige, 2013. "Identifying the intergenerational effects of the 1959–1961 Chinese Great Leap Forward Famine on infant mortality," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 11(4), pages 474-487.
    4. Stefan Dercon & Catherine Porter, 2014. "Live Aid Revisited: Long-Term Impacts Of The 1984 Ethiopian Famine On Children," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 927-948, August.
    5. Prabhu Pingali & Anaka Aiyar & Mathew Abraham & Andaleeb Rahman, 2019. "Transforming Food Systems for a Rising India," Palgrave Studies in Agricultural Economics and Food Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-3-030-14409-8, June.
    6. Loren Brandt & Aloysius Siow & Carl Vogel, 2016. "Large Demographic Shocks And Small Changes In The Marriage Market," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 14(6), pages 1437-1468, December.
    7. Xue Feng Hu & Gordon G. Liu & Maoyong Fan, 2017. "Long‐Term Effects of Famine on Chronic Diseases: Evidence from China's Great Leap Forward Famine," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 26(7), pages 922-936, July.
    8. Tan, Chih Ming & Tan, Zhibo & Zhang, Xiaobo, 2014. "Sins of the fathers: The intergenerational legacy of the 1959-1961 Great Chinese Famine on children's cognitive development:," IFPRI discussion papers 1351, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    9. Bhalotra, Sonia & Rawlings, Samantha B., 2011. "Intergenerational persistence in health in developing countries: The penalty of gender inequality?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 95(3-4), pages 286-299, April.
    10. Elizabeth Gooch, 2018. "Resistance is Futile? Institutional and Geographic Factors in China’s Great Leap Famine," HiCN Working Papers 266, Households in Conflict Network.
    11. Case, Anne & Menendez, Alicia, 2009. "Sex differences in obesity rates in poor countries: Evidence from South Africa," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 7(3), pages 271-282, December.
    12. Feng, Xunan & Johansson, Anders C., 2018. "Living through the Great Chinese Famine: Early-life experiences and managerial decisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 638-657.
    13. Chen, Qihui & Deng, Tinghe & Pei, Chunchen & Wang, Chengcheng, 2018. "Memory of Famine – Does Childhood Experience of Severe Food Shortage Affect Food Choice in Old Age?," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 273897, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Song, Shige, 2010. "Mortality consequences of the 1959-1961 Great Leap Forward famine in China: Debilitation, selection, and mortality crossovers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 551-558, August.
    15. Loren Brandt & Aloysius Siow & Carl Vogel, 2008. "Large Shocks and Small Changes in the Marriage Market for Famine Born Cohorts in China," Working Papers tecipa-334, University of Toronto, Department of Economics.
    16. Kim, Seonghoon & Deng, Quheng & Fleisher, Belton M. & Li, Shi, 2014. "The Lasting Impact of Parental Early Life Malnutrition on Their Offspring: Evidence from the China Great Leap Forward Famine," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 232-242.
    17. Kim, Younoh & Sikoki, Bondan & Strauss, John & Witoelar, Firman, 2015. "Intergenerational correlations of health among older adults: Empirical evidence from Indonesia," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 6(C), pages 44-56.
    18. Huang, Cheng & Phillips, Michael R. & Zhang, Yali & Zhang, Jingxuan & Shi, Qichang & Song, Zhiqiang & Ding, Zhijie & Pang, Shutao & Martorell, Reynaldo, 2013. "Malnutrition in early life and adult mental health: Evidence from a natural experiment," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 259-266.
    19. Pham-Kanter, Genevieve, 2010. "The Gender Weight Gap: Sons, Daughters, and Maternal Weight," MPRA Paper 28997, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Song, Shige, 2014. "Evidence of adaptive intergenerational sex ratio adjustment in contemporary human populations," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 14-21.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:7:p:2210-:d:337052. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.