In 2011-12, Somalia experienced the worst famine of the twenty- first century. Since then, research on the famine has focused almost exclusively on the external response, the reasons for the delay in the international response, and the implications for international humanitarian action in the context of the "global war on terror." This paper focuses on the internal, Somali response to the famin...

OBJECTIVE Maternal undernutrition during gestation is associated with increased metabolic and cardiovascular disease in the offspring. We investigated whether these effects may persist in subsequent generations. DESIGN Historical cohort study. SETTING Interview during a clinic or home visit or by telephone. POPULATION Men and women born in the Wilhelmina Gasthuis in Amsterdam between Nove...

This paper presents an analysis of the economics of the 1947 Soviet famine, using data from recently declassified archives. It is argued that the best estimate that can currently be given of the number of excess deaths is the range 1·0–1·5 million. The demographic loss was greater. During the famine, surplus stocks in the hands of the state seem to have been sufficient to have fed all those who...

The developmental origins hypothesis proposes that undernutrition during early development is associated with an increased type 2 diabetes risk in adulthood. We investigated the association between undernutrition during childhood and young adulthood and type 2 diabetes in adulthood. We studied 7,837 women from Prospect-EPIC (European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition) who were...

Developing countries today face the paradoxical dual burden of malnutrition and obesity. It has been hypothesized that early childhood malnutrition leads to a higher risk of adult obesity, though evidence is mixed. I study the health outcomes and health behaviors of adult men and women who were born during the 1959-61 China Famine. I find that women who as infants were exposed to famine have on...

One of the largest famines in human history took place in China half a century ago. This disaster, lasting from 1958 to 1961 in many areas, resulted in a huge number of excess deaths. While the causes, magnitude and profound impacts of this catastrophe have been unfolded gradually in recent decades, many issues about the famine remain to be adequately examined. This paper aims to fill some gaps...

The idea that hunter-gatherer societies experience more frequent famine than societies with other modes of subsistence is pervasive in the literature on human evolution. This idea underpins, for example, the 'thrifty genotype hypothesis'. This hypothesis proposes that our hunter-gatherer ancestors were adapted to frequent famines, and that these once adaptive 'thrifty genotypes' are now respons...

The results of studies exploring the long-term consequences of famine during foetal or infant development are inconsistent. We tested the hypothesis that selection forces occurring during a famine change the distribution of frailty in the affected cohorts, possibly hiding negative long-term effects. Using mortality data for Finland, gathered from the Human Mortality Database, we explored the ef...