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Famines in the Last 100 Years: Implications for Diabetes

  • Diabetes Epidemiology (NM Maruthur)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Overnutrition is a major cause of diabetes. The contrary situation of undernutrition has also been suggested to increase the risk of the disease. Especially undernutrition during prenatal life has been hypothesized to program the structure and physiology of the fetus in such a way that it is more prone to develop diabetes in later life. Famines over the last 100 years have provided historical opportunities to study later-life health consequences of poor nutritional circumstances in early life. The majority of studies based on famine exposure during prenatal life clearly show that diabetes risk is increased. Postnatal famine exposure in childhood, adolescence, or young adulthood also seems to raise risk for diabetes, although prenatal famine effects seem to be more substantial. These study results not only have implications for the consequences of famines still happening but also for pregnancies complicated by factors mimicking poor nutritional situations.

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Papers of particular interest, published recently, have been highlighted as: •• Of major importance

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Acknowledgments

Susanne R. de Rooij is funded by the European Community FP7 HEALTH, Project 279281 (BRAINAGE). Rebecca C. Painter reports grants from the Netherlands Heart Foundation, Medical Research Council UK, Academic Medical Centre Amsterdam, and Diabetes Fonds Nederland.

Compliance with Ethics Guidelines

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Conflict of Interest

Susanne R. de Rooij, Tessa J. Roseboom, and Rebecca C. Painter declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

The Dutch famine birth cohort study has been carried out in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The local medical ethics committee had approved study and informed consent was obtained from all participants.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Susanne R. de Rooij

  2. Departments of Clinical Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Tessa J. Roseboom

  3. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Meibergdreef 9, 1105 AZ, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Tessa J. Roseboom & Rebecca C. Painter

Authors
  1. Susanne R. de Rooij
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  2. Tessa J. Roseboom
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  3. Rebecca C. Painter
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Susanne R. de Rooij.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Diabetes Epidemiology

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de Rooij, S.R., Roseboom, T.J. & Painter, R.C. Famines in the Last 100 Years: Implications for Diabetes. Curr Diab Rep 14, 536 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0536-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11892-014-0536-7

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