Disorders of Glucose Regulation in Adults and Birth Weight
Results from the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) Study
- Isa Al Salmi, MD1,
- Wendy E. Hoy, FRACP1,
- Srinivas Kondalsamy-Chennakesavan, MPH1,
- Zhiqiang Wang, PHD1,
- Glenda C. Gobe, PHD2,
- Elizabeth L. M. Barr, MPH3 and
- Jonathan E. Shaw, MD3
- 1Centre for Chronic Disease, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
- 2Discipline of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
- 3International Diabetes Institute, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
- Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Isa Al Salmi, Centre for Chronic Disease, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Royal Brisbane Hospital, Herston, QLD 4029, Australia. E-mail: i.alsalmi{at}uq.edu.au
Abstract
OBJECTIVE—The purpose of this study was to examine the association of birth weight with indexes of glycemia in a population-based survey.
RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—A total of 10,788 participants in the Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle (AusDiab) Study were asked to complete a birth weight questionnaire. Fasting plasma glucose (FPG), postload glucose (PLG), and A1C were modeled against birth weight. World Health Organization criteria were used to define impaired fasting glucose (IFG), impaired glucose tolerance (IGT), and diabetes.
RESULTS—Among 7,157 participants who responded to the questionnaire, 4,502 reported their birth weights, with a mean ± SD of 3.4 ± 0.7 kg. FPG, PLG, and A1C were strongly and inversely correlated with birth weight. The odds ratios (95% CI) for high (>90th sex-specific percentile) FPG, PLG, and A1C were 0.83 (0.71–0.96), 0.74 (0.65–0.84), and 0.81 (0.70–0.94), respectively, for a 1-kg increase in birth weight after adjustment for age and sex. In those with low birth weight (LBW), the risks for having IFG, IGT, and diabetes and for all abnormalities combined were increased by 1.75, 2.22, 2.76, and 2.28, respectively, for women and by 1.40, 1.32, 1.98, and 1.49 for men compared with risks for those with normal birth weight. These trends applied across categories of age and BMI.
CONCLUSIONS—In an affluent Western country with a good adult health profile, birth weight has an inverse relationship with indexes of glycemia, and individuals with LBW were predisposed to higher rates of glycemic dysregulation in adult life. These associations were independent of BMI and of other factors significantly correlated with glycemic dysregulation.
- AusDiab, Australian Diabetes, Obesity and Lifestyle
- FPG, fasting plasma glucose
- IFG, impaired fasting glucose
- IGT, impaired glucose tolerance
- LBW, low birth weight
- NBW, normal birth weight
- PAR%, population-attributable risk percentage
- PLG, postload glucose
Footnotes
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Published ahead of print at http://care.diabetesjournals.org on 12 October 2007. DOI: 10.2337/dc07-1170.
Additional information for this article can be found in an online appendix at http://dx.doi.org/10.2337/dc07-1170.
A table elsewhere in this issue shows conventional and Système International (SI) units and conversion factors for many substances.
The costs of publication of this article were defrayed in part by the payment of page charges. This article must therefore be hereby marked “advertisement” in accordance with 18 U.S.C. Section 1734 solely to indicate this fact.
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- Accepted October 4, 2007.
- Received June 20, 2007.
- DIABETES CARE
