Association between exposure to the Chinese famine during early life and the risk of chronic kidney disease in adulthood

Famine exposure in human early life is proven to be associated with urinary protein concentration and renal function but has not been studied with chronic kidney disease. We aimed to explore the association between exposure to the Chinese famine (from 1959 to 1962) in early life and the risk of chronic kidney disease in adulthood. Design, setting, participants, and measurements: We selected 6267 participants from the baseline survey of China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) 2011–2012. Based on the birth year, they were divided into fetal exposed, preschool exposed, school-aged exposed, and non-exposed groups. The estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) was calculated according to Japanese coefficient–modified Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration equation. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) was defined as eGFR less than 60 mL/min per 1.73 m2. The prevalence of CKD in fetal exposed, preschool exposed, school-aged exposed and non-exposed groups was 4.27%, 5.41%, 9.65% and 2.42%, respectively. The risk of CKD in fetal exposed, preschool exposed and school-aged exposed groups was significantly higher than the non-exposed group. In addition, after stratification by gender and famine severity, we found that only fetal exposure to the severe famine was associated with the elevated risk of CKD among male adults (OR 4.44, 95%CI 1.10–17.92, P < 0.05), even after adjusting for age, marital status, household per capita income, history of kidney disease, hypertension, diabetes or abnormal glucose tolerance, smoking, drinking, rural/urban residence and highest educational attainment of parents. Severe famine exposure as a fetus might increase the risk of chronic kidney disease in male adults.