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Enteral and parenteral nutrition

Chinese famine exposure in infancy and metabolic syndrome in adulthood: results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study

European Journal of Clinical Nutrition volume 73, pages 724–732 (2019)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background/objectives

To explore the association between famine exposure in early life and the risk of metabolic syndrome in the Chinese adults.

Subjects/methods

A total of 2148 participants aged 50s were selected from a large national epidemiological survey in the China. The logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between famine exposure in early life and risk of metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

Results

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among individuals in the preschool exposed group, infant exposed group, fetal exposed group, and the non-exposed group was 37.9, 43.5, 37.5, and 34.0%, respectively. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the infant exposed group was significantly higher than the non-exposed group (43.5 vs. 34.0%, P = 0.006). Compared with the non-exposed group, individuals who exposed to the famine in infancy significantly increased the risk of metabolic syndrome (OR = 1.83; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.70) after adjusting for gender, smoking status, drinking status, physical activity, and the educational levels of participants and their parents. However, similar results were not observed in the fetal (OR = 1.25; 95% CI: 0.89, 1.74) or the preschool (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 0.97, 1.75) exposed groups.

Conclusions

The Great China famine exposure during infancy was linked with the elevated risk of metabolic syndrome in adults aged 50s, which provided further evidence for the developmental origins hypothesis.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank the CHARLS program team for help in data available and training for using their data. Authors also thank all the students and staff of the China CDC who participated in this program.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of China (grant number NEFC 81673192).

Author contributions

Z.W. and Z.Z. participated in the design of this study, Z.W. and S.W. performed the statistical analysis, and J.M. supervised data analysis. All authors participated in writing the paper. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Child and Adolescent Health, School of Public Health, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing, 100191, China

    Zhenghe Wang, Zhiyong Zou, Shuo Wang, Zhongping Yang & Jun Ma

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  1. Zhenghe Wang
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  2. Zhiyong Zou
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Correspondence to Jun Ma.

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Wang, Z., Zou, Z., Wang, S. et al. Chinese famine exposure in infancy and metabolic syndrome in adulthood: results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study. Eur J Clin Nutr 73, 724–732 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41430-018-0211-1

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