ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2013
Quantification of excess risk for diabetes for those born in times of hunger, in an entire population of a nation, across a century.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 43 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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43 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 94 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of maternal nutrition on offspring's risk of non-communicable diseases in adulthood: a systematic review.Journal of global health · 2019Pooled it
- Meta-analysis of glucose tolerance, insulin, and insulin resistance in antipsychotic-naïve patients with nonaffective psychosis.Schizophrenia research · 2017Pooled it
- Acute maternal stress in pregnancy and cardiovascular risk factors in adolescent offspring: a birth-cohort study.International journal of epidemiology · 2026Article
- Remembrance of things past: Towards a life-course biology of aging.PLoS biology · 2026Article
- The role of sex differences in cardiovascular, metabolic, and immune functions in health and disease: a review for "Sex Differences in Health Awareness Day".Biology of sex differences · 2025Review
- Famine mortality and contributions to later-life type 2 diabetes at the population level: a synthesis of findings from Ukrainian, Dutch and Chinese famines.BMJ global health · 2024Review
- Article
- Great leap forward famine exposure and urban-rural migration convolute the modern prevalence of diabetes in China.Journal of health, population, and nutrition · 2024Article
- Article
- The Long-Term Consequences of Early Life Exposure to Tsunami and Conflict on Adolescents in Sri Lanka.Asia-Pacific journal of public health · 2023Article
- Early life exposure to famine and risk of dyslipidemia in adults: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.Journal of diabetes and metabolic disorders · 2022Review
- Combined effects of air pollution in adulthood and famine exposure in early life on type 2 diabetes.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Maternal prenatal infection and anxiety predict neurodevelopmental outcomes in middle childhood.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2022Article
- Impact of prenatal famine exposure on adulthood fasting blood glucose level.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Prior undernutrition and insulin production several years later in Tanzanian adults.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Article
- Associations Between Maternal Nutrition in Pregnancy and Child Blood Pressure at 4-6 Years: A Prospective Study in a Community-Based Pregnancy Cohort.The Journal of nutrition · 2021Article
- Cohort profile: the Dutch famine birth cohort (DFBC)- a prospective birth cohort study in the Netherlands.BMJ open · 2021Article
- Low Birthweight as a Risk Factor for Non-communicable Diseases in Adults.Frontiers in medicine · 2021Review
- How Specialist Aftercare Impacts Long-Term Readmission Risks in Elderly Patients With Metabolic, Cardiac, and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Diseases: Cohort Study Using Administrative Data.JMIR medical informatics · 2020Article
- Genetics and Epigenetics: New Insight on Gestational Diabetes Mellitus.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2020Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Based on a unique dataset comprising all 325,000 Austrian patients that were under pharmaceutical treatment for diabetes during 2006 and 2007, we measured the excess risk of developing diabetes triggered by undernourishment in early life. We studied the percentage of all diabetes patients in the total population specifically for each year of birth, from 1917 to 2007. We found a massive excess risk of diabetes in people born during the times of the three major famines and immediately after, which occurred in Austria in the 20th century: 1918-1919, 1938, and 1946-1947. Depending on the region, there was an up to 40% higher chance of having diabetes when born in 1919-1921, compared with 1918 or 1922, where age-specific typical diabetes ratios are observed. The excess risk for diabetes was practically absent in those provinces of Austria that were less affected by the famines. We show that diabetes rates exhibit nontrivial, age-specific sex differences, and correlate with the economic wealth of the region. Our results might be of relevance for establishing higher awareness in the health system for those born in high-risk years, and underline the importance of ensuring sufficient nutrition in prenatal and early stages of life.
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