SynthesisPloS one2018
The relationship between famine exposure during early life and body mass index in adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 29 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
29 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Famine Exposure during Early Life and Risk of Cancer in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.The journal of nutrition, health & aging · 2023Pooled it
- Early-Life Exposure to the Chinese Famine of 1959-1961 and Type 2 Diabetes in Adulthood: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.Nutrients · 2022Pooled it
- Effect of Exposure to Famine during Early Life on Risk of Metabolic Syndrome in Adulthood: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of diabetes research · 2020Pooled it
- Birthweight phenotype genotype mismatch in cardiometabolic programming.Communications medicine · 2026Article
- Association of exposure to famine early in life with indicators of obesity in adulthood: testosterone as a potential mediator?International journal of obesity (2005) · 2025Article
- Association between famine exposure during early life and the risk of hyperuricemia in adulthood: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC nutrition · 2025Article
- Epigenetics and individuality: from concepts to causality across timescales.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2025Review
- Malnutrition in infants aged under 6 months: prevalence and anthropometric assessment - analysis of 56 low- and middle-income country DHS datasets.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Does income have a non-linear impact on residents' BMI? Re-examining the obesity Kuznets curve.BMC public health · 2025Article
- The association of famine exposure with healthy lifestyles at different life stages in rural older adults in China.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- From starvation to depression: unveiling the link between the great famine and late-life depression.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Perinatal Famine Exposure and Young-Onset Cancer-Lessons from China Health and Nutrition Survey.Cancers · 2024Article
- Early Life Interventions: Impact on Aging and Longevity.Aging and disease · 2024Review
- Early life predictors of body composition trajectories from adolescence to mid-adulthood.American journal of human biology : the official journal of the Human Biology Council · 2023Article
- Overweight grandsons and grandfathers' starvation exposure.Journal of health economics · 2023Article
- Famine exposure in early life and type 2 diabetes in adulthood: findings from prospective studies in China.Nutrition research and practice · 2023Article
- Early life famine exposure and anthropometric profile in adulthood: a systematic review and Meta-analysis.BMC nutrition · 2022Article
- Response to Antibiotic exposure and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis by Maryam et al. (2021) by J Zhou and K Chen (2021).Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- The Relationship Between Famine Exposure During Early Life and Left Ventricular Hypertrophy in Adulthood.Frontiers in nutrition · 2022Article
- Chinese famine exposure in early life and metabolic obesity phenotype in middle age: Results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPrevious epidemiologic studies have reported famine exposure during early life association with overweight or obesity in adulthood, but a consistent perspective has not been established to date. PURPOSE: To determine, by conducting a systematic review and meta-analysis, whether exposure to famine could increase body mass index (BMI) in adult or not, and assess the association between famine exposure and the risk of overweight or obesity.
methodsPublished articles were systematically searched (until August, 2017) from PubMed, ScienceDirect, Cochrane, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. Initially, comparing differences in BMI between exposed and non-exposed groups that weight mean difference (WMD) were used. Subsequently, the effect of famine exposure on overweight or obesity risk, which pooled relative risks (RRs), odds ratios (ORs) or hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using a random-effects model.
resultTwenty studies were included in this systematic review and meta-analysis. Compared with non-exposed group, famine exposure group significantly increased the risk of overweight (OR = 1.10, 95% CI: 1.04-1.16) and obesity (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.05-1.24). Sensitivity analyses revealed no significant change in the famine exposure and BMI, the risk of overweight and obesity study when any one study was excluded. Subgroup analyses showed that age, gender, exposure type, study type, continent, famine cause and paper publication date were associated with BMI, the risk of overweight and obesity. Meta-regression analyses suggested that continent, famine cause could partially explain heterogeneity for famine exposure and BMI studies.
conclusionThe systematic review and meta-analysis indicates that famine exposure during early life may increase BMI, the risk of overweight and obesity, especially for female, fetal famine exposure or subject age less than 50. Furthermore, famine exposure group the risk of overweight and obesity in cross-sectional studies, Asian studies, famine cause by natural disaster or paper published from 2015 to the present studies are higher than that of non-exposed group.
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