IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v73y2011i5p711-718.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Early life undernutrition and chronic diseases at older ages: The effects of the Dutch famine on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes

Author

Listed:
  • Portrait, France
  • Teeuwiszen, Erica
  • Deeg, Dorly

Abstract

Nutritional conditions in early life may causally affect health at older ages. This paper examines the effects of early life exposure to the Dutch famine (Winter 1944-45) on the prevalence of heart diseases, peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) and diabetes mellitus (DM) at ages 60-76. Analyses are performed using data from the fifth cycle of the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Exposure to the famine is determined by reported place of residence during the Dutch famine, with those living in the cities in the West of the Netherlands defined as exposed (n = 278) and those living in the rural areas in the West or living in the North or East defined as non-exposed (n = 521). We successively compare the prevalence of heart diseases, PAD and DM at ages 60-76 of 370 males and 429 females exposed and non-exposed to the famine in early life. We distinguish four age classes of exposure in early life: gestation and infancy (ages 0-1), childhood (age 1-5), pre-adolescence (ages 6-10) and adolescence (ages 11-14). The analysis shows that exposure to severe undernutrition at ages 11-14 is significantly associated with a higher probability of developing DM and/or PAD at ages 60-76. The associations are found only in women, but not in men. If suggests that adolescence may be a critical period with respect to exposure to adverse (nutritional) conditions and that research should take this into account. These findings are relevant for children in developing countries who are exposed to severe nutritional deprivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Portrait, France & Teeuwiszen, Erica & Deeg, Dorly, 2011. "Early life undernutrition and chronic diseases at older ages: The effects of the Dutch famine on cardiovascular diseases and diabetes," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(5), pages 711-718, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:5:p:711-718
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953611002413
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Henrard, J. C., 1996. "Cultural problems of ageing especially regarding gender and intergenerational equity," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 43(5), pages 667-680, September.
    2. Jenifer Hamil-Luker & Angela O’rand, 2007. "Gender differences in the link between childhood socioeconomic conditions and heart attack risk in adulthood," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(1), pages 137-158, February.
    3. Ye Luo & Linda J. Waite, 2005. "The Impact of Childhood and Adult SES on Physical, Mental, and Cognitive Well-Being in Later Life," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 60(2), pages 93-101.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Conti, Gabriella & Poupakis, Stavros & Ekamper, Peter & Bijwaard, Govert E. & Lumey, L.H., 2024. "Severe prenatal shocks and adolescent health: Evidence from the Dutch Hunger Winter," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    2. Julia Mink, 2021. "The effects of major life events and exposure to adverse environmental conditions on health and health-related outcomes [Les effets d'événements majeurs de la vie et de l'exposition à des condition," SciencePo Working papers tel-03575191, HAL.
    3. Bertoni, Marco, 2015. "Hungry today, unhappy tomorrow? Childhood hunger and subjective wellbeing later in life," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 40-53.
    4. Jiyuan Wang & Rob Alessie & Viola Angelini, 2023. "Exposure in utero to adverse events and health late‐in‐life: Evidence from China," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 32(3), pages 541-557, March.
    5. Bratti, Massimiliano & Frimpong, Prince Boakye & Russo, Simone, 2021. "Prenatal Exposure to Heat Waves and Child Health in Sub-saharan Africa," IZA Discussion Papers 14424, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    6. Xu, Hongwei & Li, Lydia & Zhang, Zhenmei & Liu, Jinyu, 2016. "Is natural experiment a cure? Re-examining the long-term health effects of China's 1959–1961 famine," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 110-122.
    7. Julia Mink, 2021. "The effects of major life events and exposure to adverse environmental conditions on health and health-related outcomes [Les effets d'événements majeurs de la vie et de l'exposition à des condition," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03575191, HAL.
    8. Popli, Gurleen & Gladwell, Daniel & Tsuchiya, Aki, 2013. "Estimating the critical and sensitive periods of investment in early childhood: A methodological note," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 316-324.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gary Yeung & Gerard Berg & Maarten Lindeboom & France Portrait, 2014. "The impact of early-life economic conditionson cause-specific mortality during adulthood," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 27(3), pages 895-919, July.
    2. Zachary Zimmer & Heidi Hanson & Ken Smith, 2016. "Childhood socioeconomic status, adult socioeconomic status, and old-age health trajectories," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 34(10), pages 285-320.
    3. Jennifer Montez & Mark Hayward, 2014. "Cumulative Childhood Adversity, Educational Attainment, and Active Life Expectancy Among U.S. Adults," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(2), pages 413-435, April.
    4. Anna Zajacova & Katrina Walsemann & Jennifer Dowd, 2015. "The Long Arm of Adolescent Health Among Men and Women: Does Attained Status Explain Its Association with Mid-Adulthood Health?," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 34(1), pages 19-48, February.
    5. Jeremy Pais, 2014. "Cumulative Structural Disadvantage and Racial Health Disparities: The Pathways of Childhood Socioeconomic Influence," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 51(5), pages 1729-1753, October.
    6. Christelis, Dimitris & Dobrescu, Loretti I. & Motta, Alberto, 2020. "Early life conditions and financial risk-taking in older age," The Journal of the Economics of Ageing, Elsevier, vol. 17(C).
    7. Wanchuan Lin, 2009. "Why has the health inequality among infants in the US declined? Accounting for the shrinking gap," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 18(7), pages 823-841, July.
    8. Shen, Ke & Zeng, Yi, 2014. "Direct and indirect effects of childhood conditions on survival and health among male and female elderly in China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 207-214.
    9. Lee, Chioun & Ryff, Carol D., 2016. "Early parenthood as a link between childhood disadvantage and adult heart problems: A gender-based approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 58-66.
    10. Jo Mhairi Hale, 2017. "Cognitive Disparities: The Impact of the Great Depression and Cumulative Inequality on Later-Life Cognitive Function," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(6), pages 2125-2158, December.
    11. Janet Currie & Mark Stabile & Phongsack Manivong & Leslie L. Roos, 2010. "Child Health and Young Adult Outcomes," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 45(3).
    12. Hui Zheng & Jonathan Dirlam & Paola Echave, 2021. "Divergent Trends in the Effects of Early Life Factors on Adult Health," Population Research and Policy Review, Springer;Southern Demographic Association (SDA), vol. 40(5), pages 1119-1148, October.
    13. Nicola Barban & Francesco C. Billari, 2012. "Classifying life course trajectories: a comparison of latent class and sequence analysis," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 61(5), pages 765-784, November.
    14. Greve, Jane & Schultz-Nielsen, Marie Louise & Tekin, Erdal, 2017. "Fetal malnutrition and academic success: Evidence from Muslim immigrants in Denmark," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C), pages 20-35.
    15. Tetyana Pudrovska & Benedicta Anikputa, 2014. "Editor's choice Early-Life Socioeconomic Status and Mortality in Later Life: An Integration of Four Life-Course Mechanisms," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 69(3), pages 451-460.
    16. Hanna Alastalo & Mikaela B von Bonsdorff & Katri Räikkönen & Anu-Katriina Pesonen & Clive Osmond & David J P Barker & Kati Heinonen & Eero Kajantie & Johan G Eriksson, 2013. "Early Life Stress and Physical and Psychosocial Functioning in Late Adulthood," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(7), pages 1-8, July.
    17. Pei, Yaolin & Cong, Zhen & Wu, Bei, 2020. "Education, adult children's education, and depressive symptoms among older adults in rural China," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 253(C).
    18. Thomas Leoni & Rainer Eppel, 2013. "Women's Work and Family Profiles over the Lifecourse and their Subsequent Health Outcomes – Evidence for Europe. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 28," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46889.
    19. Zachary Zimmer & Luoman Bao & Nanette L. Mayol & Feinian Chen & Tita Lorna L. Perez & Paulita L. Duazo, 2017. "Functional limitation trajectories and their determinants among women in the Philippines," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 36(30), pages 863-892.
    20. Zhang, Zhenmei & Liu, Hui & Choi, Seung-won, 2020. "Early-life socioeconomic status, adolescent cognitive ability, and cognition in late midlife: Evidence from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 244(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:73:y:2011:i:5:p:711-718. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.