Evidence of a Relationship between Infant Birth Weight and Later Diabetes Mellitus and Impaired Glucose Regulation in a Chines

Objective: To determine the influence of birth weight, a marker of fetal growth, on the development of later impaired glucose metabolism throughout the life-span of people living in China. Research Design and Methods: We recorded detailed anthropometric data including height, weight and health status and measured blood glucose levels and insulin concentrations at fast and 120 min of a standard OGTT from 2,019 eligible subjects born between 1921 and 1954 to investigate the risk of developing type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) and impaired glucose regulation (IGR). Results: The DM and IGR groups were characterized by significantly lower birth weight (P<0.001), smaller head circumference (P<0.001), smaller ponderal index (PI, P=0.007), and shorter length (P=0.004) in contrast to those in the normal glucose tolerance (NGT) group. Using multiple logistic regression analysis, we observed that birth weight remained significantly associated with DM and IGR after adjusting for possible confounding variables at birth and in adult life such as gender, age, central obesity, smoking status, alcohol consumption, dyslipidaemia, family history of diabetes and occupational status (p=0.027). There was a significantly increased risk of getting DM and IGR for those with low birth weight (odds ratio 1.748 [95% confidence interval 1.018 to 3.001], p=0.043). Conclusions: The results confirm that lower birth weight is an independent risk factor for later diabetes or impaired glucose regulation, and show for the first time that this is also applies for a Chinese population.