[Starving in childhood and diabetes mellitus in elderly age].

The long-term consequences of the protracted starvation or inadequate nutrition of children is a problem in which considerable interest has been shown in recent decades. Between June 1941 and January 1944 the civilian population of Leningrad was besieged for two and a half years. The non-combatant population of this large European city lived through lengthy periods of starvation or malnutrition against a background of additional complex stress factors (including cold, bombing, death of relatives and acquaintances, and lack of means of transport and communication).