Association between exposure to earthquake in early life and diabetes mellitus incidence in adulthood with the modification of lifestyles: Results from the Kailuan study

Xinying Shui; Lei Zhao; Wenli Li; Yaning Jia; Ziquan Liu; Chen Li; Xueli Yang; Haoran Huang; Shouling Wu; Shuohua Chen; Jingli Gao; Xiaolan Li; Aitian Wang; Xiaobin Jin; Liqiong Guo; Shike Hou

doi:10.3389/fped.2022.1046086

Association between exposure to earthquake in early life and diabetes mellitus incidence in adulthood with the modification of lifestyles: Results from the Kailuan study

Front Pediatr. 2022 Nov 8:10:1046086. doi: 10.3389/fped.2022.1046086. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Xinying Shui^{1

2

3}, Lei Zhao^{1

2

3}, Wenli Li^{1

2

3}, Yaning Jia^{1

2

3}, Ziquan Liu^{1

2

3}, Chen Li⁴, Xueli Yang⁴, Haoran Huang⁵, Shouling Wu⁶, Shuohua Chen⁶, Jingli Gao⁷, Xiaolan Li⁷, Aitian Wang⁷, Xiaobin Jin², Liqiong Guo^{1

2

3}, Shike Hou^{1

2

3}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Disaster and Emergency Medicine, Tianjin University, Tianjin, Tianjin, China.
² Wenzhou Safety (Emergency) Institute, Tianjin University, Wenzhou, China.
³ Tianjin Key Laboratory of Disaster Medicine Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin, China.
⁴ Department of Occupational & Environmental Health, School of Public Health, Tianjin Medical University, Tianjin, China.
⁵ Basic Medical Science College, Harbin Medical University, Harbin, China.
⁶ Department of Cardiology, Kailuan General Hospital, Tangshan, China.
⁷ Department of Intensive Medicine, Kailuan General Hospital, Tangshan, China.

Abstract

Background: Exposure to disasters in early life may induce lifetime health risk, but investigation on earthquake exposure and DM in later life is still limited. The aim of the current study is to evaluate the association between exposure to the Tangshan Earthquake in early life and diabetes mellitus (DM) incidence in adulthood, and explore the modification of lifestyles on DM development.

Methods: Participants who were free of DM at baseline from the Kailuan Study were included in this study. All participants were divided into fetal-exposed, infant-exposed, early childhood-exposed and nonexposed group. The effect of earthquake exposure on DM and modification of lifestyles were examined by multivariable-adjusted Cox proportional hazard model.

Results: The exposed group had a higher risk of DM than nonexposed group, especially in infant-exposed and early childhood-exposed group, with hazard ratio (HR) of 1.62 [95% confidence intervals (CI), 1.21-2.17] and 1.46 (95% CI, 1.06-1.99), respectively. After stratifying by lifestyles, a significant modification was observed in alcohol consumption.

Conclusion: Exposing to earthquake in early life could increase DM incidence in later life, and alcohol consumption might modify the effect of earthquake exposure on DM development. More attention should be paid on the preventions of DM among adults who exposed to earthquake in their early life.

Keywords: diabetes mellitus; early life; earthquake exposure; lifestyles; the Kailuan study.