Objective: To investigate whether exposure to the Chinese Famine in different life stages of early life is usually associated with cognitive functioning decline in adulthood. associated with overall and specific cognitive decline, affecting selective attention and response inhibition particularly. = 237), fetal-exposed group (age = 54C56, birth 12 months = 1959C1961, = 217), early childhood-exposed group (age = 57C59, birth 12 months = 1956C1958, 1C3 years old during the famine, = 314), mid childhood-exposed group (age = 60C62, birth 12 months = 1953C1955, 4C6 years old during the famine, = 320), and late childhood-exposed group (age = 63C65, birth 12 months = 1950C1952, 7C9 years old during the famine, = 278). Our total sample size was 1366 subjects. Demographic and clinical assessment The demographic and clinical characteristics of the subjects including age, gender, years of education, way of life, family history of dementia, and medical history were collected by face-to-face interviews at the baseline evaluation. Smoking status and alcohol consumption were also ascertained. We coded smoking and alcohol as current and other. Current smoking was defined as having smoked three or more cigarettes a week during the past Dinaciclib 6 months before recruitment. Current alcohol consumption was defined as alcohol intake three or more times a week during the past 6 months before recruitment. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as excess weight (kg)/height (m2). Cognitive assessment Dinaciclib A selection of well-established and standard cognitive functioning assessments on the basis of earlier research was used to assess respondents’ cognitive overall performance, which required about 40 min to total. All the interviews were done face to face in local hospitals by nurses or researcher who experienced attended unified training several times before. All the assessments were carried out according to provided guidelines and procedures. The assessment contained the following Dinaciclib cognitive functioning assessments. The mini-mental state examination (MMSE) The Chinese version MMSE was chosen for global cognitive status across multiple domains. As a rapid cognitive screening instrument and a practical method of grading cognitive functioning, it comprises 20 individual assessments, Rabbit polyclonal to AMPK gamma1. totaling 30 points and covers 11 domains. The brevity and the broad protection of cognitive domains make it the most commonly used cognitive instrument and diagnostic test of dementia (Mitchell et al., 2014). The cutoff score for dementia applied to the Chinese residents is usually 19 for illiterate individuals, 22 for individuals with 1C6 years of education and 26 for individuals with 7 or more years of education (Zhang et al., 1999). The montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA) The Beijing version MoCA is also brief 30-point assessment of global cognitive screening instrument intended to detect moderate cognitive impairment (MCI). It also provides a comprehensive assessment including a broad array of cognitive domains but incorporates expanded executive function and visuospatial items, which offers sensitivity and specificity to detect MCI patients and other cognitively impaired subjects with a normal range score around the MMSE (Gluhm et al., 2013; Lam et al., 2013). The cutoff score for MCI applied to the Chinese residents is usually 14 for illiterate individuals, 19 for individuals with 1C6 years of education, and 24 for individuals with 7 or more years of education (Lu et al., 2011). Logical memory test (LMT) The test from your Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised, Dinaciclib Chinese version (WMS-RC) edited by Gong et al. (1989) was adopted to evaluate memory functions in this study. Logical memory test (LMT) provided steps of verbal memory function and capacity to recall and acquire information over brief time periods. Participants tested by LMT were required to recall two story paragraphs told by investigators immediately. Gist and verbatim scoring systems were used to evaluate the verbal recall of the story paragraphs. The stroop color and word test (SCWT) The test consists of three subtests: subtask I composed of names of four colors printed in black font (reddish, blue, yellow, and green), subtask II with patches in one of these colors and subtask III that consists of color names printed in an incongruous ink color. Each subtest displays 50 stimuli. Subjects were instructed to first read the color names (subtask I), then recognize color of the patches (subtask II), and finally name the ink color of the printed terms (subtask III) as quickly as possible. The outcome of this test.