Low birthweight linked to metabolic disorders

By Hollie Ewers on 23 August 2018 Low Birthweight Research Obesity

Findings from research in China suggest that nutrition in early life is linked to obesity, diabetes and hypertension later in life.

Analysis published in the Journal of Diabetes looked at the birthweight of some 11,515 men and 13,569 women from the Shanghai Men’s health Study and the Shanghai Women’s Health study.

Associations were examined between low birth weight, anthropometric measurements made at study enrolment, self reported diagnoses of Type 2 diabetes and hypertension diagnoses based on self report and blood pressure measurements.

The results found that low birthweight was associated with subsequent obesity and the prevalence and risk of Type 2 diabetes and hypertension in both Chinese men and women. 

The research suggests that nutrition in early life is considerably important to health in later life, and low birthweight should be considered as an important risk factor for obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in the general population and can be used to identify high‐risk individuals. 

In addition, the authors suggest that more attention should be paid to maternal health to reduce the number of babies born with a low birthweight and in order to decrease the prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and hypertension in the general population in the long run.

Senior author Dr Wanghong Xu, of the Fudan University School of Public Health, in China said: ‘The associations were observed even after adjusting for most socioeconomic and lifestyle factors in adulthood, such as educational level, per capita income, smoking, alcohol consumption and regular exercise.

‘These results suggest an important role of maternal and child health in prevention of non-communicable diseases in China and other low- and middle-income countries.’

Access the full study here.