Early-life famine exposure increases the risk of subsequent physical disability: evidence from a national population-based survey

作者：Shiwei Cao, Yao Wu, Tengfei Niu, Xiyu Chen, Jie Xiang, Hao Li, Ziyi Chen, Qianying Shi, Yu Du · 发表于：Frontiers in Public Health · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.3389/fpubh.2025.1587680 · 被引用次数：3 · 研究领域：Birth, Development, and Health、Child Nutrition and Water Access、Gestational Diabetes Research and Management

Background: Due to ethical constraints, famines, which can lead to severe malnutrition, are often viewed as natural experiments to assess the impact of early-life nutritional malnutrition on adverse health outcomes in adulthood. However, evidence regarding the effect of early-life famine exposure on later-life physical disability remains scarce. This study aims to investigate the association between early-life famine exposure and physical disability in the Chinese population. Methods: This study is based on survey data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study released in 2018. Famine exposure was determined based on participants' birth years, and all individuals were categorized into four groups: non-exposed, fetal exposed, preschool exposed, and school-age exposed. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to examine the association between early-life famine exposure and physical disability. Stratified analyses were further performed by gender, residence, and severity of early-life famine exposure. Results: After adjusting for all covariates, fetal exposure to famine was associated with a 1.57-fold increased risk of severe disability compared to the non-exposed group. Among males, older people with fetal exposure to famine was significantly associated with a 1.69-fold increased risk of severe disability compared to the non-exposed group. Among females, older populations with famine exposure during the school-age period was associated with a 1.52-fold increase...