Early life exposure to China's 1959-61 famine and midlife cognition.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Existing studies of the 1944-45 Dutch famine found little evidence of the association between early life malnutrition and midlife cognition.

Methods

Among 2446 rural participants born between 1958 and 1963 in the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study, we examined effects of exposure to China's 1959-61 Great Leap Forward famine during prenatal and early postnatal life, on four cognitive measures in 2011 (baseline) and changes in cognition between 2011 and 2013 (first follow-up). We obtained difference-in-differences (DID) estimates of the famine effects by exploiting temporal variation in the timing and duration of famine exposure across six birth cohorts born between 1958 and 1963, together with geographical variation in famine severity at the prefecture

SUBMITTER: Xu H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6075478 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature