Exposure to Famine During Early Life and Abdominal Obesity in Adulthood: Findings from the Great Chinese Famine During 1959–1961

Liú, Dan; Yu, Dongmei; Zhao, Liyun; Fang, Hongyun; Zhang, Jian; Wang, Jing-Zhong; Yang, Zhenyu; Wang, Zhao

doi:10.3390/nu11040903

Cited by 36 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…An increased waist to height ratio among adults was observed in the present study after early-life exposure to famine. The finding was consistent with other studies conducted in China [31], Dutch [26], and Nigeria [48]. This could be due to intrauterine nutritional insult, which brings developmental adaptations that permanently change the body structure and function and increases the risk of intra-abdominal fat deposition in later life [22].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

“…Findings from an earlier investigation of famine in early life and anthropometric indices of adulthood have been documented in Dutch [25][26][27][28][29] and Chinese [30][31][32][33] birth cohorts; however, the findings were varied. There is lack of information on the long-term consequences of earlylife exposure to famine in Ethiopia, a country with an unsettled situation with ongoing maternal and childhood malnourishment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of early life famine exposure on adulthood anthropometry among survivors of the 1983–1985 Ethiopian Great famine: a historical cohort study

et al. 2021

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Background Nutritional insult in early life brings adaptive changes in body structure and functioning that could remain throughout the affected individual’s life course. The long term impact of early life famine exposure on adulthood anthropometric measurements has been recorded in previous studies. However, the results were contradictory. Hence, we extend this study to examine the impact of famine exposure during early life on adulthood’s anthropometry among survivors of the 1983–85 Ethiopian great famine. Methods A total of 1384 adult men and women survived from 1983 to 85 Ethiopian great famine were included in the study. Famine exposure status was classified into five groups: early life-exposed, prenatal-exposed, postnatal-exposed, adolescence-exposed, and non-exposed based on self-reported age and birthdate of the participants. Prenatal, post-natal, and adolescence exposed groups were considered as early life exposed. Following a standard procedure, anthropometric measurements were taken. A linear regression analysis was used to analyze the impact of famine exposure on adult anthropometric measurements adjusted for all possible covariates. The effect of famine exposure on overweight, general obesity, and abdominal obesity was examined using multinomial and binary logistic regression analysis. Result Compared to non-exposed groups, adult height was lower by 1.83 cm (β = − 1.83; 95% CI: − 3.05, − 0.58), 1.35 cm (β = − 1.35; 95% CI: − 2.56, − 0.14) and 2.07 cm (β = − 2.07 cm; 95% CI: − 3.31, − 0.80) among early life, prenatal and post-natal exposed groups, respectively. Likewise, famine exposure during early life (β = 0.02; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.03), prenatal (β = 0.03; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.03) and post-natal life (β = 0.02; 95% CI: 0.02, 0.03) was positively associated with increased waist to height ratio. However, none of the above exposures resulted in a significant association with body mass index (P > 0. 05). Additionally, exposure to famine during early stage of life was not associated with increased risk of overweight, general obesity and abdominal obesity in adults. Conclusion Decreased adult height and increased waist-to-height ratio were associated with early life exposure to famine, particularly prenatal and post-natal exposure. These results therefore underscore the significance of avoiding undernutrition in early life, which tends to be important for achieving once potential adult height and to minimize the increased risk of anthropometric markers of abdominal obesity such as waist to height ratio in later life.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of early life famine exposure on adulthood anthropometry among survivors of the 1983–1985 Ethiopian Great famine: a historical cohort study

et al. 2021

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“…AAD was considered as a disorder of oxidative stress, and basic research indicated that oxidative stress played an important role in thoracic aortic aneurysms [26]. Third, exposure to famine during early life was associated with increased risks of obesity in adulthood [27], and obesity was signi cantly linked with increased visceral, perivascular, and epicardial adipose tissue [28]. A previous study demonstrated that increased epicardial adipose tissue thickness was correlated with AAD [29].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The relationship between famine exposure in early life and ascending aorta dilatation in adulthood

Huang¹,

Liu²,

et al. 2020

Preprint

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BackgroundThe relationship between malnutrition and ascending aorta dilatation (AAD) is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association of exposure to the Chinese famine during early life with AAD in adulthood.MethodsWe investigated data of 2598 adults born between 1952 and 1964 from Guangdong, China. All enrolled subjects were divided into five groups: no exposed, fetal exposed, early, mid and late childhood exposed. AAD was assessed by cardiac ultrasound. Multivariate logistic regression and interaction tests were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) between famine exposure and AAD.ResultsThere were 2598 (943 male, mean age 59.1 ± 3.65 years) participants were enrolled, among them consist of 270 (10.4%) subjects with AAD. Compared with no exposed group, the adjusted ORs for AAD widening from fetal-exposed, early, mid to late childhood exposed were 1.374 (95% CI: 0.794, 2.364, P = 0.251), 1.976 (95% CI: 1.243, 3.181, P = 0.004), 1.929 (95% CI: 1.237, 3.058, P = 0.004) and 2.227 (95% CI: 1.433, 3.524, P < 0.001), respectively. Stratified analysis showed that the effect of famine exposure on AAD was more pronounced in female, smokers, BMI ≥ 24 kg/m2 and hypertensive patients.ConclusionsWe observed that exposure to famine during early life was an independent risk factor for AAD in adulthood; this effect was not modified by gender, BMI, smoking, hypertension and diabetes.Yu-qing HUANG and Lin LIU are equally to this paper.

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“…AAD was considered as a disorder of oxidative stress, and basic research indicated that oxidative stress played an important role in thoracic aortic aneurysms [35]. Third, exposure to famine during early life was associated with increased risks of obesity in adulthood [36], and obesity was signi cantly linked with increased visceral, perivascular, and epicardial adipose tissue [37]. A previous study demonstrated that increased epicardial adipose tissue thickness was correlated with AAD [38].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Famine Exposure During Early Life Increased the Risk of Ascending Aorta Dilatation in Adults

Huang¹,

Lin²,

Lo³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: The relationship between malnutrition and ascending aorta dilatation (AAD) is still unclear. Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine the association of exposure to the Chinese famine during early life with AAD in adulthood. Methods: We investigated data of 2598 adults born between 1952 and 1964 from Guangdong, China. All enrolled subjects were divided into five groups: no exposed, fetal exposed, early, mid and late childhood exposed. AAD was assessed by cardiac ultrasound. Multivariate logistic regression and interaction tests were used to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and confidence interval (CI) between famine exposure and AAD. Results: There were 2598 (943 male, mean age 59.1 ± 3.65 years) participants were enrolled, among them consist of 270 (10.4%) subjects with AAD. We found that famine exposure (OR=2.266, 95% CI: 1.477, 3.477, P=0.013), age, smoking, hypertension, elevated SBP, elevated BMI was an independent risk factor for AAD. In addition, compared with no exposed group, the adjusted ORs for AAD widening from fetal-exposed, early, mid to late childhood exposed were 1.374 (95% CI: 0.794, 2.364, P=0.251), 1.976 (95% CI: 1.243, 3.181, P=0.004), 1.929 (95% CI: 1.237, 3.058, P=0.004) and 2.227 (95% CI: 1.433, 3.524, P<0.001), respectively. Stratified analysis showed that the effect of famine exposure on AAD was more pronounced in female, smokers, BMI ≥24 kg/m2 and hypertensive patients. Conclusions: We observed that exposure to famine during early life was an independent risk factor for AAD in adulthood; this effect was not modified by gender, BMI, smoking, hypertension and diabetes.

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Exposure to Famine During Early Life and Abdominal Obesity in Adulthood: Findings from the Great Chinese Famine During 1959–1961

Cited by 36 publications

References 37 publications

Impact of early life famine exposure on adulthood anthropometry among survivors of the 1983–1985 Ethiopian Great famine: a historical cohort study

Impact of early life famine exposure on adulthood anthropometry among survivors of the 1983–1985 Ethiopian Great famine: a historical cohort study

The relationship between famine exposure in early life and ascending aorta dilatation in adulthood

Famine Exposure During Early Life Increased the Risk of Ascending Aorta Dilatation in Adults

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