The long-term health effects of fetal malnutrition: Evidence from the 1959-1961 China Great Leap Forward Famine

• Main Authors: KIM, Seonghoon, FLEISHER, Belton, SUN, Jessica Ya
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: China Famine; Fetal origin hypothesis; Health; Malnutrition; Health Economics
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soe_research/1934; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soe_research/article/2933/viewcontent/Kim_et_al_2016_Health_Economics__1___1_.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

We report evidence of long-term adverse health impacts of fetal malnutrition exposure of middle-aged survivors of the 1959-1961 China Famine using data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study. We find that fetal exposure to malnutrition has large and long-lasting impacts on both physical health and cognitive abilities, including the risks of suffering a stroke, physical disabilities in speech, walking and vision, and measures of mental acuity even half a century after the tragic event. Our findings imply that policies and programs that improve the nutritional status of pregnant women yield benefits on the health of a fetus that extend through the life cycle in the form of reduced physical and mental impairment.