| First author, year | Continent | Study design | Age range Mean age (exposed/unexposed) | Definition of MetS | Study size (cases/participants) | Famine duration periods | Causes of famine | Adjustment for covariates |
| de Rooij, 2007 | Europe | Cohort | 58.0 | NCEP-ATPIII | 251/783 | 1944-1945 | War | Gender | Guan, 2009 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 43-53 | CDS 2004 | 1475/14917 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Age | Li, 2011 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 38-50 | NCEP-ATPIII | 646/7874 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Gender, family income, family history of diabetes and hypertension, educational level, current smoking, alcohol use, physical activity level, and BMI | Zheng, 2011 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 44-51 | CDS 2004 | 756/5040 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Age | Keinan-Boker, 2015 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 69.4/69.2 | Metabolic syndrome proxy | 150/1086 | 1940-1945 | War | Gender and age | Wang, 2015 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 40-55 | IDF | NRa/6445 | 1959-1962 | Natural disaster | Age, smoking, rural/urban residence, and economic status | Yu, 2018 | Asia | Cohort | 49-61 | IDF | 2396/7915 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Gender, education, smoking status, drinking status, physical activity, past history of CHD, family history of hypertension and diabetes, fruit intake, vegetable intake, meat intake, BMI, and famine severity | Han, 2019 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 53-80 | NCEP-ATPIII | NRa/25708 | 1951-1953 | War | Age, household income, smoking, drinking, and exercise status | Wang, 2019 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 51.8/54.0/55.5/48.9 | CDS 2013 | 799/2148 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Gender, smoking status, drinking status, physical activity level, parents, and their own education level | Ning, 2019 | Asia | Cross-sectional | 51.3 | CDS2013/NCEPATPIII/IDF | 2809/9588 | 1959-1961 | Natural disaster | Age, study cohort, residential area, sex, education levels, income levels, current smoking, and current drinking |
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