Early-life undernutrition, immune dysregulation, and cancer incidence in later life: a national life-course analysis from the China health and retirement longitudinal study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Severe childhood famine may imprint durable immunometabolic scars, yet its longitudinal impact on chronic inflammation and cancer trajectories in China's ageing population is unresolved.

Methods

We analyzed 2-515 adults in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (2011-2015) who were born 1947-1961; early-life undernutrition was assigned when birth occurred during 1959-1961 and in one of five provinces with > 30% grain deficit. In parallel, an independent hospital-based verification cohort of 82 adults (recruited 2024-2025) underwent identical exposure classification, biomarker sampling, and cancer surveillance for external validation. High-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hs-CRP), white-blood-cell (WBC) counts, and physician-confirmed malignancies were t

SUBMITTER: Wang H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12420247 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature