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. 2023 Oct 29;15(21):4600.
doi: 10.3390/nu15214600.

A Link between Prenatal Stage of Life during the Great Chinese Famine and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms among Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Yushan Du  1   2 , Yanan Luo  3 , Lirong Nie  1   2 , Ziyang Ren  1   2 , Jinfang Sun  4 , Jufen Liu  1   2
Affiliations

A Link between Prenatal Stage of Life during the Great Chinese Famine and Subsequent Depressive Symptoms among Middle-Aged and Older Adults

Yushan Du et al. Nutrients. .

Abstract

Prenatal malnutrition may increase the risk of depressive symptoms in adulthood. This study investigated the association between prenatal exposure to malnutrition with risk of depressive symptoms in middle-aged and older adults using the Chinese Great Famine of 1959-1961 as a natural experiment. Data were obtained from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study baseline survey (2011). A total of 5391 individuals born from 1956 to 1965 were included in the study. Depressive symptoms were ascertained via the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale short form. Famine severity was measured using the cohort size shrinkage index. Difference-in-differences models were used to explore the association between prenatal famine exposure and later-life depressive symptoms. Compared with the post-famine cohort (1963-1965), famine cohorts (1959-1962) were 4.74 times (95% CI = 1.28-8.20) as likely to develop depressive symptoms. The stratified analysis found that prenatal exposure to famine was associated with depressive symptoms in rural residents but not those living in urban areas. In rural females, prenatal malnutrition was associated with a higher risk of depressive symptoms. However, there was no significant association between prenatal malnutrition and depressive symptoms in rural males. Our results indicated that prenatal malnutrition may contribute to a higher risk for depressive symptoms in later life among female rural residents.

Keywords: Chinese Great Famine; depressive symptoms; natural experiment; prenatal malnutrition.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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