The long-term effects of the Chinese great famine on mental health

ABSTRACT

A growing body of studies examined the effects of health shocks during early childhood and in-utero in developing countries. However, the related research on mental health is limited. In this article, we contribute to the existing literature by providing evidence of the long-term effects of the Chinese Great Famine in 1959–1961 on self-reported mental health. Using CHARLS, we find that people who were exposed to the famine in early childhood are more likely to have mental problems. In addition, women are more likely to be impacted by the famine.

KEYWORDS:

• Nutritional shock
• famine
• mental health
• elderly

JEL CLASSIFICATION:

• I12
• J14

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ People with schizophrenia cannot distinguish real and unreal life and may cause delusions, hallucinations and extremely disordered thinking and behaviour. According to American Psychiatric Association, only less than 1% of US population are diagnosed as schizophrenia.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Social Science Fund of China [[18CJY001]].