Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults

Objectives. To assess the association between childhood hunger experiences and the prevalence of chronic diseases later in life. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted using baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), a nationally representative study of perso...

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Published in:Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
Main Authors: Lucía Félix-Beltrán, Brayan V. Seixas
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Spanish
Portuguese
Published: Pan American Health Organization 2021
Subjects:
R
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.39
https://doaj.org/article/b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80
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spelling ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80 2023-05-15T15:13:05+02:00 Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults Lucía Félix-Beltrán Brayan V. Seixas 2021-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.39 https://doaj.org/article/b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80 EN ES PT eng spa por Pan American Health Organization https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/53413 https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 https://doaj.org/toc/1680-5348 1020-4989 1680-5348 doi:10.26633/RPSP.2021.39 https://doaj.org/article/b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80 Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 45, Iss 39, Pp 1-10 (2021) hunger chronic disease aging diabetes mellitus osteoporosis brazil Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2021 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.39 2022-12-31T15:38:08Z Objectives. To assess the association between childhood hunger experiences and the prevalence of chronic diseases later in life. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted using baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), a nationally representative study of persons aged 50 years and older (n = 9 412). Univariate and bivariate analyses were used to describe the sample, and multivariate logistic regressions to examine the association between childhood hunger and hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis. Adjusted odds ratios and predicted probabilities were calculated. Results. 24.7% of Brazilians aged 50 and over experienced hunger during childhood. This harmful exposure was significantly more common among non-white people, individuals with lower educational attainment, lower household income and heavy manual laborers. Regional variation was also observed, as the prevalence of individuals reporting childhood hunger was higher in the North and Northeast regions. The multivariate analysis revealed that older adults who reported having experienced hunger during childhood had 20% higher odds of developing diabetes in adulthood (aOR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.41) and 38% higher odds of developing osteoporosis (aOR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.15 – 1.64) than adults who did not experience hunger during childhood, after controlling for covariates. Conclusions. The study showed an association between childhood hunger and two chronic diseases in later life: diabetes and osteoporosis. This work restates that investing in childhood conditions is a cost-effective way to have a healthy society and provides evidence on relationships that deserve further investigation to elucidate underlying mechanisms. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 45 1
institution Open Polar
collection Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles
op_collection_id ftdoajarticles
language English
Spanish
Portuguese
topic hunger
chronic disease
aging
diabetes mellitus
osteoporosis
brazil
Medicine
R
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
spellingShingle hunger
chronic disease
aging
diabetes mellitus
osteoporosis
brazil
Medicine
R
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
Lucía Félix-Beltrán
Brayan V. Seixas
Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
topic_facet hunger
chronic disease
aging
diabetes mellitus
osteoporosis
brazil
Medicine
R
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine
RC955-962
Public aspects of medicine
RA1-1270
description Objectives. To assess the association between childhood hunger experiences and the prevalence of chronic diseases later in life. Methods. A cross-sectional study was conducted using baseline data from the Brazilian Longitudinal Study of Aging (ELSI-Brazil), a nationally representative study of persons aged 50 years and older (n = 9 412). Univariate and bivariate analyses were used to describe the sample, and multivariate logistic regressions to examine the association between childhood hunger and hypertension, diabetes, arthritis and osteoporosis. Adjusted odds ratios and predicted probabilities were calculated. Results. 24.7% of Brazilians aged 50 and over experienced hunger during childhood. This harmful exposure was significantly more common among non-white people, individuals with lower educational attainment, lower household income and heavy manual laborers. Regional variation was also observed, as the prevalence of individuals reporting childhood hunger was higher in the North and Northeast regions. The multivariate analysis revealed that older adults who reported having experienced hunger during childhood had 20% higher odds of developing diabetes in adulthood (aOR = 1.20, 95% CI: 1.02 – 1.41) and 38% higher odds of developing osteoporosis (aOR = 1.38, 95% CI: 1.15 – 1.64) than adults who did not experience hunger during childhood, after controlling for covariates. Conclusions. The study showed an association between childhood hunger and two chronic diseases in later life: diabetes and osteoporosis. This work restates that investing in childhood conditions is a cost-effective way to have a healthy society and provides evidence on relationships that deserve further investigation to elucidate underlying mechanisms.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Lucía Félix-Beltrán
Brayan V. Seixas
author_facet Lucía Félix-Beltrán
Brayan V. Seixas
author_sort Lucía Félix-Beltrán
title Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
title_short Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
title_full Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
title_fullStr Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
title_full_unstemmed Childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among Brazilian older adults
title_sort childhood hunger experiences and chronic health conditions later in life among brazilian older adults
publisher Pan American Health Organization
publishDate 2021
url https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.39
https://doaj.org/article/b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
genre Arctic
genre_facet Arctic
op_source Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 45, Iss 39, Pp 1-10 (2021)
op_relation https://iris.paho.org/handle/10665.2/53413
https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989
https://doaj.org/toc/1680-5348
1020-4989
1680-5348
doi:10.26633/RPSP.2021.39
https://doaj.org/article/b667d7250e114d11be769c5feb771a80
op_doi https://doi.org/10.26633/RPSP.2021.39
container_title Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública
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