Famine exposure in early life is associated with visceral adipose dysfunction in adult females.

PURPOSE: Epidemiologic studies have revealed that early life malnutrition increases later risk of metabolic diseases. The visceral adiposity index (VAI) is a novel sex-specific index that shows promise as a marker of visceral adipose dysfunction. We aimed to explore whether exposure to the Chinese famine between 1959 and 1962 during fetal and childhood periods was related to VAI in adulthood. METHODS: Our data source was SPECT-China, a population-based cross-sectional study in East China. Overall, 5295 subjects from 16 sites were divided into fetal-exposed (1959-1962), childhood-exposed (1949-1958), adolescence/young adult-exposed (1921-1948), and non-exposed (1963-1974) groups. The associations of life periods when exposed to famine with VAI were assessed via linear regression. RESULTS: Compared with the non-exposed women (1963-1974), the fetal- and the childhood-exposed women had significantly greater VAI values (P < 0.05), but this difference was not observed in men. In the fetal- and childhood-exposed women, there was a significant positive association of famine exposure with VAI after adjusting for age, current smoking, rural/urban residence, and economic status (both P < 0.05). Further adjustments for diabetes and hypertension did not attenuate this association (both P < 0.05). However, such association was not observed in men. CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to famine in early life may have a significant association with visceral adipose dysfunction in adult females. The fetal age and childhood may be important time windows for nutrition relief to prevent visceral adipose dysfunction.