A socio-historical hypothesis for the diabetes epidemic in Chinese - Preliminary observations from Hong Kong as a natural experiment

Abstract

It has been hypothesized that the emerging epidemic of diabetes in economically transitioning or recently transitioned populations is due to mismatch between developmental and mature environments. We took advantage of migration within an ethnically homogenous population to investigate this hypothesis, and the potentially modifying role of postnatal growth conditions, proxied by greater height. We used multivariable logistic regression in a population-based cross-sectional study from 1994 to 1996 of 2,341 long-term Hong Kong residents aged 25-74 years, either born in contemporaneously developed Hong Kong or migrants from economically undeveloped Guangdong. Migrant status was not associated wi..