Chinese famine exposure in infancy and metabolic syndrome in adulthood: results from the China health and retirement longitudinal study.

<bold>Background/objectives: </bold>To explore the association between famine exposure in early life and the risk of metabolic syndrome in the Chinese adults.<bold>Subjects/methods: </bold>A total of 2148 participants aged 50s were selected from a large national epidemiological survey in the China. The logistic regression models were used to analyze the association between famine exposure in early life and risk of metabolic syndrome in adulthood.<bold>Results: </bold>The prevalence of metabolic syndrome among individuals in the preschool exposed group, infant exposed group, fetal exposed group, and the non-exposed group was 37.9, 43.5, 37.5, and 34.0%, respectively. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome in the infant exposed group was significantly higher than the non-exposed group (43.5 vs. 34.0%, P = 0.006). Compared with the non-exposed group, individuals who exposed to the famine in infancy significantly increased the risk of metabolic syndrome (OR = 1.83; 95% CI: 1.24, 2.70) after adjusting for gender, smoking status, drinking status, physical activity, and the educational levels of participants and their parents. However, similar results were not observed in the fetal (OR = 1.25; 95% CI: 0.89, 1.74) or the preschool (OR = 1.30; 95% CI: 0.97, 1.75) exposed groups.<bold>Conclusions: </bold>The Great China famine exposure during infancy was linked with the elevated risk of metabolic syndrome in adults aged 50s, which provided further evidence for the developmental origins hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]