Impact of Early Life Famine Exposure on Body Composition and Metabolic Profiles in Adulthood

The relationship between the famine and metabolic syndrome has been reported, but there is a lack of more detailed changes in metabolic profiles. It is unclear how famine affects body composition. This study included 21,142 participants from the China National Health Survey. The body mass index (BMI), fat mass index (FMI), and fat-free mass index (FFMI) were calculated. Systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), blood lipids, and fasting blood glucose (FBG) were measured. Multivariate adjusted linear regression models were used to assess the association between famine and outcome. Our results shown that fetal-exposed group had higher BMI and FMI (β > 0). Childhood-exposed group showed an average decrease of 0.08 standard deviation (SD) in FFMI, and adolescence-exposed group had lower BMI and FFMI than non-exposed group. SBP were 0.38 SD higher in fetal-exposed group, 0.58 SD higher in childhood-exposed group and 0.85 SD higher in adolescence-exposed group than non-exposed group. Famine-exposed groups had higher total cholesterol (TC), low density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), and FBG levels (β > 0). For females with famine exposure, they had a higher BMI, FMI, LDL-C, TG, and TC than males. Overall, early famine exposure is associated with increased blood pressure, LDL-C, TC, and FBG. Muscle mass loss in adulthood associated with childhood and adolescence famine exposure. Famine-exposed females appear to have higher levels of body fat and blood lipids.