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Exposure to the Great Famine in Early Life and the Risk of Obesity in Adulthood: A Report Based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey

Jiang, H; Yu, Y; Li, L; Xu, W; (2021) Exposure to the Great Famine in Early Life and the Risk of Obesity in Adulthood: A Report Based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey. Nutrients , 13 (4) , Article 1285. 10.3390/nu13041285. Green open access

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Abstract

<jats:p>Intrauterine malnutrition has a long-term effect on human health. This study aimed to evaluate the associations between exposure to famine in early life and obesity in adulthood in Chinese adults. A total of 5033 participants (22,132 observations) of the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) in 1991–2015 were classified into three famine exposure groups according to their birth year: unexposed (1963–1966), fetal-exposed (1959–1962) and childhood-exposed (1955–1958). Compared with the unexposed group, the fetal-exposed group had higher levels of body-mass-index (BMI) and waist-circumference (WC), and higher prevalence of overweight and central obesity, whereas the childhood-exposed group had lower levels of the measurements. However, the positive associations of fetal exposure with BMI, WC and prevalence of overweight and central obesity were attenuated by additionally adjusting for age at survey. Stratified analysis showed that the adverse effect of fetal exposure to famine was only observed in subjects at several specific age-groups, and in men living in rural areas and in women living in more severe famine exposed areas (p for interaction &lt; 0.05). Our results provide evidence for the weak effect of fetal exposure to famine on body measurements in adulthood, and suggest the importance of severity of famine exposure and timing of exposure.</jats:p>

Type: Article
Title: Exposure to the Great Famine in Early Life and the Risk of Obesity in Adulthood: A Report Based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.3390/nu13041285
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nu13041285
Language: English
Additional information: This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
Keywords: famine exposure; body mass index; waist circumference; overweight; central obesity; adulthood
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > UCL GOS Institute of Child Health > Population, Policy and Practice Dept
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10126955
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