Overweight grandsons and grandfathers’ starvation exposure

Abstract

Much of the increase in the prevalence of overweight and obesity has been in developing countries with a history of famines and malnutrition. This paper is the first to examine overweight among adult grandsons of grandfathers exposed to starvation during developmental ages. I study grandsons born to grandfathers who served in the Union Army during the US Civil War (1861-5) where some grandfathers experienced severe net malnutrition because they suffered a harsh POW experience. I find that male-line but not female-line grandsons of grandfathers who survived a severe captivity during their growing years faced a 21% increase in mean overweight and a 2% increase in mean BMI compared to grandsons of non-POWs. Male-line grandsons descended from grandfathers who experienced a harsh captivity faced a 22%–28% greater risk of dying every year after age 45 relative to grandsons descended from non-POWs, with overweight accounting for 9%–14% of the excess risk.