Early life famine exposure to the Great Chinese Famine in 1959–1961 and subsequent pregnancy loss: a population‐based study

Zhang, H; Qu, Xueqi; Wang, Hanyu; Tang, Kun

doi:10.1111/1471-0528.15908

Cited by 12 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Extended drought may also lead to famine, exposure to which is widely recognized as a significant cause of adverse pregnancy outcomes, subsequent chronic diseases later in life, and even intergenerational health impacts. [105][106][107][108][109].…”

Section: Extreme Weather Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Climate and Pregnancy Health

2022

Curr Envir Health Rpt

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Purpose of Review Climate change is the biggest public health threat of the twenty-first century but its impact on the perinatal period has only recently received attention. This review summarizes recent literature regarding the impacts of climate change and related environmental disasters on pregnancy health and provides recommendations to inform future adaptation and mitigation efforts. Recent Findings Accumulating evidence suggests that the changing climate affects pregnancy health directly via discrete environmental disasters (i.e., wildfire, extreme heat, hurricane, flood, and drought), and indirectly through changes in the natural and social environment. Although studies vary greatly in design, analytic methods, and assessment strategies, they generally converge to suggest that climate-related disasters are associated with increased risk of gestational complication, pregnancy loss, restricted fetal growth, low birthweight, preterm birth, and selected delivery/newborn complications. Window(s) of exposure with the highest sensitivity are not clear, but both acute and chronic exposures appear important. Furthermore, socioeconomically disadvantaged populations may be more vulnerable. Summary Policy, clinical, and research strategies for adaptation and mitigation should be continued, strengthened, and expanded with cross-disciplinary efforts. Top priorities should include (a) reinforcing and expanding policies to further reduce emission, (b) increasing awareness and education resources for healthcare providers and the public, (c) facilitating access to quality population-based data in low-resource areas, and (d) research efforts to better understand mechanisms of effects, identify susceptible populations and windows of exposure, explore interactive impacts of multiple exposures, and develop novel methods to better quantify pregnancy health impacts.

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Section: Extreme Weather Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Changing Climate and Pregnancy Health

2022

Curr Envir Health Rpt

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“…Consistent with previous research on Chinese famine, which lasted for 3 years from 1969 to 1961 with exact start and end time points [14,15]. Participants born before 1942 were categorized as the adult exposed group and served as the reference group for the study.…”

Section: Famine Definitionmentioning

confidence: 98%

The Association of Early-life exposure to the Chinese Famine and healthy lifestyle behavior for elderly hypertensive patients in China

wang,

Miao,

Niu

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Objective: Early life exposure plays a key role in a person's life. However, little is known about whether such effects will influence healthy lifestyle behaviors(HLBs) in later life. The study aimed to investigate the impact of early-life famine exposure on HLBs in elderly hypertensive patients. Methods: This study included 18284 elderly hypertensive patients who were surveyed from 11 July to 31 August 2023, in Jia County, Henan Province. Famine exposure subgroups were categorized by birth year: infancy and toddler (1956-1958), preschool (1953-1955), school-aged (1947-1952), adolescent (1942-1946), and adult (before 1942). The outcome was six HLBs, including no smoking, no alcohol consumption, physical activity, sleep duration, body mass index (BMI), and waist circumference (WC). Logistic regression evaluated the associations of each outcome with early-life exposure. Further analyses were stratified by gender and sensitivity analysis was verified. Results: The average age of the study population was 73.4 years, and 57.7% were predominantly women. After adjustment for potential confounding, compared with adult exposure groups, infancy and toddler exposed showed a decreased risk of no smoking, no alcohol consumption, healthy BMI, healthy WC, and an increased OR for healthy physical activity and sleep duration (all P<0.05). Preschooler-exposure has the same results as infants and toddlers exposed (P<0.05). Only the school-aged child exposed group and the adolescent exposed group had no statistical significance between sleep duration. Conclusions: Early-life exposure to famine was associated with HLBs, such as smoking, alcohol consumption, BMI, WC, physical activity and sleep duration in hypertensive patients. These associations are stronger among participants who have experienced infancy exposure. Our findings would provide useful knowledge for other countries suffering from famine as a result of natural disasters, helping public health workers to target interventions.

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“…Hayward et al (14) and Rickard et al (55) find evidence that women born in years with low local crop yields have a reduced reproductive success. Zhang et al (56), using self-reported data, find that women affected by the great Chinese famine in infancy are more likely to report stillbirths, but find no association with spontaneous abortion. Lumey (57) reports no impact on long-term fertility of exposure to the Dutch famine in the Second World War, and Lumey and Stein (58) do not find any significant effect on age at first delivery or proportion of childless women following early-life exposure to the same event.…”

Section: Theoretical Mechanismsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Disease exposure in infancy affects women’s reproductive outcomes and offspring health in Southern Sweden 1905-2000

Dijk¹,

Nilsson²,

Quaranta³

2022

Preprint

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Mounting evidence shows that early-life adversity negatively affects morbidity and survival in late life, but knowledge is limited about effects on health in mid-life. To deepen our understanding of the long-term consequences of disease exposure in early life, we study women’s reproductive outcomes and survival. Using the Scanian Economic Demographic Database (SEDD) and Swedish administrative register data, in combination with local infant mortality rates as an indication of disease load exposure in the year of birth, we follow women’s reproductive careers over close to a century (1905-2000), focusing on a comprehensive set of outcomes. The results show that women exposed to disease in early life give birth to a lower proportion of boys (lower offspring sex ratio), in line with the notion that male fetuses are more vulnerable to their mother’s adverse physical or contextual conditions, and that pregnancies with male fetuses more often result in a miscarriage. Moreover, boys of exposed mothers are more likely to be born preterm, and they are heavier than boys born to non-exposed mothers, possibly because of in utero out-selection of weaker male fetuses. We also note that exposed women have a higher risk of stillbirth and miscarriage, and a lower risk of multiparous pregnancies, but do not find strong evidence that overall likelihood of giving birth is affected. Our results imply that early-life disease exposure has a continuous impact on reproduction and health across the female life course, and even affects the early-life health of the next generation.

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Early life famine exposure to the Great Chinese Famine in 1959–1961 and subsequent pregnancy loss: a population‐based study

Cited by 12 publications

References 29 publications

The Changing Climate and Pregnancy Health

The Changing Climate and Pregnancy Health

The Association of Early-life exposure to the Chinese Famine and healthy lifestyle behavior for elderly hypertensive patients in China

Disease exposure in infancy affects women’s reproductive outcomes and offspring health in Southern Sweden 1905-2000

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