Long‐Term Effects of Famine on Chronic Diseases: Evidence from China's Great Leap Forward Famine

Abstract

We evaluate the long-term effects of famine on chronic diseases using China's Great Leap Forward Famine as a natural experiment. Using a unique health survey, we explore the heterogeneity of famine intensity across regions and find strong evidence supporting both the adverse effect and the selection effect. The two offsetting effects co-exist and their magnitudes vary in different age cohorts at the onset of famine. The selection effect is dominant among the prenatal/infant famine-exposed cohort, while the adverse effect appears dominant among the childhood/puberty famine-exposed cohort. The net famine effects are more salient in rural residents and non-migrants subsamples. Gender differences are also found, and are sensitive to smoking and drinking behaviors. Our conclusion is robust to various specifications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Prenatal malnutrition and adult cognitive impairment: a natural experiment from the 1959–1961 Chinese famine

“…We only found the long-term impact of prenatal famine exposure on adult cognitive impairment in rural areas. This is likely because famine severity was much greater in rural China (28) . The similar rural-urban differentials have been observed for other health outcomes like schizophrenia (38) .…”

“…Meanwhile, we can also rely on the famine severity across regions to identify the variation of famine exposure in the same birth cohorts. The detailed rationale of using this method to infer the causal effect of famine was explained elsewhere (10) and was broadly used in Chinese famine studies (13,23,25,28) . Logit regression models with the DID estimators were fitted as the following:…”

Surviving the Famine Unscathed? An Analysis of the Long‐Term Health Effects of the Great Chinese Famine

“…Meng and Qian () and Gørgens et al (2012) also find that children who experience the Famine before age five had 1–2 cm reduction in adult height. Hu, Liu, and Fan () show that the cohort exposed to the Famine during childhood or puberty had higher risks of chronic diseases. In relation to mental health, St. Clair et al () analyzed psychiatric case records in a mental hospital in Anhui province and estimated that children born during the Famine were twice as likely to develop schizophrenia.…”

Maternal Beslenme ve İlerleyen Yaşamda Obezite

“…Gebelik döneminde yeterli miktarda ve sağlıklı beslenmenin önemi; bu dönemdeki mikronütrient veya toplam enerji alımındaki eksiklikler sonucunda yenidoğanda yetersiz büyüme ve uzun süreli sağlık sonuçları arasındaki ilişkinin varlığıyla gösterilmiştir. 6 Maternal beslenme yetersizliği dünyanın birçok yerinde hala yaygın olsa da, sanayileşmiş ve yarı sanayileşmiş ülkelerin çoğunda, şu anda daha önemli bir sağlık sorunu aşırı enerji alımıdır. Maternal diyet bileşenleri (örneğin doymuş yağlar) veya besin grupları (işlenmiş gıdalar gibi) ve bunların aşırı alımı ilerleyen dönemde yenidoğanlarda obezite gelişimi için önemli bir risk faktörü olabilir.…”