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Famine exposure in early life is associated with visceral adipose dysfunction in adult females

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Abstract

Purpose

Epidemiologic studies have revealed that early life malnutrition increases later risk of metabolic diseases. The visceral adiposity index (VAI) is a novel sex-specific index that shows promise as a marker of visceral adipose dysfunction. We aimed to explore whether exposure to the Chinese famine between 1959 and 1962 during fetal and childhood periods was related to VAI in adulthood.

Methods

Our data source was SPECT-China, a population-based cross-sectional study in East China. Overall, 5295 subjects from 16 sites were divided into fetal-exposed (1959–1962), childhood-exposed (1949–1958), adolescence/young adult-exposed (1921–1948), and non-exposed (1963–1974) groups. The associations of life periods when exposed to famine with VAI were assessed via linear regression.

Results

Compared with the non-exposed women (1963–1974), the fetal- and the childhood-exposed women had significantly greater VAI values (P < 0.05), but this difference was not observed in men. In the fetal- and childhood-exposed women, there was a significant positive association of famine exposure with VAI after adjusting for age, current smoking, rural/urban residence, and economic status (both P < 0.05). Further adjustments for diabetes and hypertension did not attenuate this association (both P < 0.05). However, such association was not observed in men.

Conclusions

Exposure to famine in early life may have a significant association with visceral adipose dysfunction in adult females. The fetal age and childhood may be important time windows for nutrition relief to prevent visceral adipose dysfunction.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Weiping Tu, Bin Li, and Ling Hu for helping organize this investigation.

Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81570726, 81600609); Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine (2014); Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (16410723200, 16411971200); Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (2017YQ053); Commission of Health and Family Planning of Pudong District (PW2015D-5); The Fourth Round of 3-year Public Health Action Plan of Shanghai (15GWZK0202). The funders played no role in the design and conduct of the study; the collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data; or the preparation, review, and approval of the manuscript.

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  1. Chi Chen, Li Zhao and Zhiyuan Ning contributed equally to this manuscript.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute and Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Shanghai JiaoTong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200011, China

    Chi Chen, Li Zhao, Zhiyuan Ning, Qin Li, Bing Han, Jing Cheng, Yi Chen, Xiaomin Nie, Fangzhen Xia, Ningjian Wang & Yingli Lu

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  1. Chi Chen
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Contributions

YL had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis. YL, NW, and FX were responsible for study concept and design. CC, LZ, ZN, QL, BH, JC, YC, and XN conducted the research. CC, LZ, and ZN analyzed the data and drafted the manuscript, which was revised for important intellectual content by all authors. YL and NW are guarantors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Fangzhen Xia, Ningjian Wang or Yingli Lu.

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Chen, C., Zhao, L., Ning, Z. et al. Famine exposure in early life is associated with visceral adipose dysfunction in adult females. Eur J Nutr 58, 1625–1633 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00394-018-1707-0

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