ArticleScientific reports2015
Multigenerational effects of parental prenatal exposure to famine on adult offspring cognitive function.
Article in Scientific reports, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- Do prenatal factors shape the risk for dementia?: A systematic review of the epidemiological evidence for the prenatal origins of dementia.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Transgenerational Impact of Environmental Change.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2026Review
- Article
- Association between fetal exposure to the Chinese famine and cognitive decline in adulthood: a retrospective cohort study.Frontiers in nutrition · 2025Article
- Article
- Secular trend of non-communicable chronic disease prevalence throughout the life span who endured Chinese Great Famine (1959-1961).BMC public health · 2023Article
- Exposure to the Dutch Famine in Early Gestation and Cognitive Function and Decline in Older Age.Nutrients · 2023Article
- The Long-Term Effect of Famine Exposure on Cognitive Performance: Evidence from the 1959-1961 Chinese Famine.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Article
- Association of Parental Famine Exposure With Offspring Depression and Cognition Function.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2022Article
- Chinese famine and metabolic syndrome: a longitudinal cohort study in Suihua China.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Article
- Reply to 'Chinese famine and metabolic syndrome: a longitudinal cohort study in Suihua China'.European journal of clinical nutrition · 2021Article
- Education can modify the long term impact of early childhood famine exposure on adulthood economic achievement: a historical cohort study among the survivors of the great Ethiopian famine 1983-85.Archives of public health = Archives belges de sante publique · 2021Article
- Combined Effect of Famine Exposure and Obesity Parameters on Hypertension in the Midaged and Older Adult: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study.BioMed research international · 2021Article
- Prenatal and early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine increased the risk of tuberculosis in adulthood across two generations.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2020Article
- THE EXPOSOME IN HUMAN EVOLUTION: FROM DUST TO DIESEL.The Quarterly review of biology · 2019Article
- Association between early-life exposure to the Great Chinese Famine and poor physical function later in life: a cross-sectional study.BMJ open · 2019Article
- Early-Life Exposure to the Chinese Famine and Risk of Cognitive Decline.Journal of clinical medicine · 2019Article
- Prenatal Protein Malnutrition Produces Resistance to Distraction Similar to Noradrenergic Deafferentation of the Prelimbic Cortex in a Sustained Attention Task.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2019Article
- PALTEM: What Parameters Should Be Collected in Disaster Settings to Assess the Long-Term Outcomes of Famine?International journal of environmental research and public health · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The effects of prenatal nutrition on adult cognitive function have been reported for one generation. However, human evidence for multigenerational effects is lacking. We examined whether prenatal exposure to the Chinese famine of 1959-61 affects adult cognitive function in two consecutive generations. In this retrospective family cohort study, we investigated 1062 families consisting of 2124 parents and 1215 offspring. We assessed parental and offspring cognitive performance by means of a comprehensive test battery. Generalized linear regression model analysis in the parental generation showed that prenatal exposure to famine was associated with a 8.1 (95% CI 5.8 to 10.4) second increase in trail making test part A, a 7.0 (1.5 to 12.5) second increase in trail making test part B, and a 5.5 (-7.3 to -3.7) score decrease in the Stroop color-word test in adulthood, after adjustment for potential confounders. In the offspring generation, linear mixed model analysis found no significant association between parental prenatal exposure to famine and offspring cognitive function in adulthood after adjustment for potential confounders. In conclusion, prenatal exposure to severe malnutrition is negatively associated with visual- motor skill, mental flexibility, and selective attention in adulthood. However, these associations are limited to only one generation.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.