Early-Life Exposure to Famine and Risk of Metabolic Associated Fatty Liver Disease in Chinese Adults

Background: Early-life exposure to the Chinese famine has been related to the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease later in life. Nevertheless, the long-term impact of famine exposure on metabolic associated fatty liver disease (MAFLD), a recently proposed term to describe liver disease associated with known metabolic dysfunction, remains unknown. The aim of our study was to explore the relationship between early famine exposure and MAFLD in adulthood. Methods: A total of 26,821 participants (10,994 men, 15,827 women) were recruited from a cohort study of Chinese adults in Shanghai. We categorized participants into four famine exposure subgroups based on the birth year as nonexposed (1963–1967), fetal-exposed (1959–1962), childhood-exposed (1949–1958), and adolescence-exposed (1941–1948). MAFLD was defined as liver steatosis detected by ultrasound plus one of the following three criteria: overweight/obesity, type 2 diabetes, or evidence of metabolic dysregulation. Multivariable logistic regression models were performed to examine the association between famine exposure and MAFLD. Results: The mean ± standard deviation age of the participants was 60.8 ± 6.8 years. The age-adjusted prevalence of MAFLD was 38.3, 40.8, 40.1, and 36.5% for the nonexposed, fetal-exposed, childhood-exposed, and adolescence-exposed subgroups, respectively. Compared with nonexposed participants, fetal-exposed participants showed an increased risk of adulthood MAFLD (OR = 1.10, 95% CI 1.00–1.21). The significant association between fetal famine exposure and MAFLD was observed in women (OR = 1.22, 95% CI 1.08–1.37), but not in men (OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.75–1.03). In age-balanced analyses combining pre-famine and post-famine births as the reference, women exposed to famine in the fetal stage still had an increased risk of MAFLD (OR = 1.15, 95% CI 1.05–1.26). Conclusions: Prenatal exposure to famine showed a sex-specific association with the risk of MAFLD in adulthood