Malnutrition during pregnancy may raise the chance of acquiring type 2 diabetes in later life, according to a number of studies.

In comparison to those born one year before or later, people born during famine have a risk of diabetes that is more than twice as high, according to a 2013 study by Peter Klimek and his team.

In a recent study, Klimek and his team for the first time were able to measure not just the incidence, or the number of new cases, but also the overall number of diabetes patients (prevalence).

“Among men born during the two most severe famine periods, 1939 and 1946/1947, the rate of new cases of diabetes is up to 78 per cent higher in 2013 to 2017 than in comparable years, and up to 59 per cent higher among women,” explains Klimek, from the Complexity Science Hub and the Medical University of Vienna.

The effect is strongest in those born in 1939. The incidence rate rose from 3.9 per cent to 6.9 per cent among men and from 3.4 per cent to 5.4 per cent among women.

Additionally, both groups have an increased incidence of concomitant conditions such as heart failure, arterial hypertension, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and kidney disease.

Scientists believe this is a result of genetic programming that occurs during pregnancy, which increases the risk of these diseases. As a result of deficiency, the unborn child’s metabolism adjusts to a nutritionally poor environment.

If this does not prove true later in life, a maladaptation occurs that leads to increased metabolic and cardiovascular diseases in these birth groups.

“One strength of our study is the new, large dataset on which it is based,” says Klimek. This covers 99.9 per cent of the Austrian population between 2012 and 2017, and all insured patients aged over 50 and under 100 were examined.

Of these approximately 3.5 million people, 746,184 were treated for diabetes. The comprehensive dataset allowed researchers to measure age-specific and regional incidence rates directly for the entire population, without additional assumptions that would be required for modelling.

“Our results clearly demonstrate that public health efforts to address diabetes should not focus solely on lifestyle factors. The importance of reproductive health, as well as adequate nutrition during pregnancy and in the early postnatal period, must also be considered,” Klimek said.