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How to conduct methodologically rigorous epidemiological studies of the Chinese Famine of 1959–1961
  1. Chunyu Liu1,
  2. Zi Lian2,
  3. Chihua Li3,4,5
  1. 1Department of Mental Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  2. 2Center for Health Equity & Urban Science Education, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA
  3. 3Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  4. 4Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
  5. 5Department of Epidemiology, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Chihua Li, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA; chihuali{at}umich.edu

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The important use of famines as human laboratories to study long-term health effects has become widely recognised over the past decades. To date, over 300 epidemiological studies of the Chinese Famine of 1959–1961 have been published, and there is a fast-growing interest in examining its intergenerational impacts.1 However, many of them had major limitations in analytical methods. In light of the study by Hu and colleagues,2 we discussed some overlooked methodological issues and alternative strategies to conduct rigorous Chinese famine studies.

A frequently discussed limitation of Chinese famine studies is that many of …

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Footnotes

  • Contributors CLi conceived and supervised the project. CLiu and CLi wrote the manuscript. CLiu, CLi and ZL revised the manuscript and approved the submission.

  • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

  • Competing interests None declared.

  • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.