Exposure to the Chinese famine in early life and the risk of anaemia in adulthood

BMC Public Health

Anne W Taylor⁴  Shiqi Zhen¹  Minghao Zhou³  Cuilin Zhang²  Zumin Shi⁴ 

[1] Department of Nutrition and Foodborne Disease Prevention, Jiangsu Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nanjing, China;Epidemiology Branch, Division of Epidemiology, Statistics, and Prevention Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Bethesda, MD 20852, USA;Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, 172 Jiangsu Road, Nanjing 210009, China;Discipline of Medicine, University of Adelaide, 122 Frome Street, Adelaide, SA 5000, Australia

关键词: Fetal exposure;    Adults;    Anemia;    Chinese famine;   

Others  :  1161718
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2458-13-904

 received in 2013-02-08, accepted in 2013-09-25,  发布年份 2013

【 摘 要 】

Background

Famine exposure during the early stage of life is related to a number of adulthood diseases. The objective of this study was to examine the association of early life exposure to the famine in China (1959–1961) with the risk of anaemia in adulthood.

Methods

We used the data of 2007 adults born between 1954 and 1964 in Jiangsu province from the 2002 Chinese National Nutrition and Health Survey. Anaemia was defined as haemoglobin concentration <12 g/dl in women and <13 g/dl in men.

Results

Prevalence of anaemia in adulthood in nonexposed, fetal-exposed, early-childhood, mid-childhood, and late-childhood exposed to famine groups were 26.0%, 33.8%, 28.1%, 28.2% and 29.7%, respectively. Overall, fetal-exposed to famine was associated with 37% increased risk of anaemia as compared with those non-exposed after adjusting for income, education, place of residence, smoking, alcohol drinking, job, hypertension and BMI; relative risk (95% confidence interval) (RR (95% CI)) was 1.37 (1.09, 1.71). In general, this association appeared to be stronger among men, those who were currently overweight or obese, or those of lower educational levels. Corresponding RR (95% CI) was 1.87 (1.21-2.87), 1.75 (1.20-2.56), and 2.07 (1.37-3.12), respectively.

Conclusions

Fetal exposure to the Chinese famine was associated with an increased risk of anaemia in adulthood.

【 授权许可】

   
2013 Shi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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