The study was conducted by viewing indicators of childhood undernutrition, which include arm length and knee height, and analyzing tests taken by more than 15,000 elderly people as part of other research in China.

“We examined the association between indicators of childhood undernutrition and the older people’s performance on a cognitive test,” Zhang said. “Our results showed that those elderly with shorter arms and legs and who often went to bed hungry as a child were more likely to perform poorly in the cognitive test.”

Zhang said the driving factors for conducting the study were her roots in China and the unique conditions of the area.

“Most studies on the topic were carried out in the United States,” she said. “I come from China, a developing country, and I thought that it would be interesting to look at the relationship in a different culture where early childhood conditions in the past were much worse.”

There are many studies that focus on the effects of childhood malnutrition in developed countries, but this study is first to concentrate on a developing country, said Danan Gu, an assistant professor in the Portland State University Nohad A. Toulan School of Urban Studies & Planning who contributed to the project.

Gu said the findings are consistent with those of the developed world and because of this, he wants to see a fight against childhood malnutrition.

“There are more than 230 million children worldwide suffering from hunger today,” Gu said.

According to the study, men who endured childhood undernutrition and hunger were 29 percent more likely to have cognitive disabilities at age 65 or older, while women were 35 percent more likely.

Mark Hayward, director of the Population Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin who worked on the study, said people in China were not getting enough calories at a young age.

“(Low calorie intake) results in a much higher risk of cognitive impairment in late life, which is true for both males and females,” Hayward said. “The less calories you’re able to consume as a child, the greater your chances of memory problems in late life.”

The results of this study can be extrapolated in many ways, but caution must be taken because of the unique lives people have in China, Hayward said.

“What can’t be extrapolated are the actual pathways or mechanisms by which these results were found,” he said. “The older Chinese population was not exposed to the same levels of education that Americans are exposed to, and the older Chinese population never engaged in the kind of creative work activities that Americans have been exposed to.”

Zhang said the country has been working to completely eliminate hunger and undernutrition from the area, but the focus needs to center on poor areas.

“I would encourage (China’s government) to pay more attention to children in poor areas in China and make sure that there are programs to help those who suffer from undernutrition,” she said.