Short Moms and Fat Dads Equals Diabetes for a Generation
posted01/06/04
A short mom and a fat dad are more likely to produce underweight babies who turn in to overweight adults with increased risk for diabetes.

Combination of low birth weight and high adult body mass index: at what age is it established and what are its determinants? A short mom and a fat dad are more likely to produce underweight babies who turn in to overweight adults, reveals new research.

The double whammy of low birth weight and excess weight gain in later life predict a high risk of poor lifetime health, including heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

The research team tracked a representative sample of 7,000 people out of a total of 17,000, born in one week of March in 1958, in England, Scotland and Wales. Each person was studied at the ages of 7, 11, 16, 23, and 33. The 'high risk' group was shorter by the age of 7 (over a 1 cm in boys and almost 2 cm in girls) than their lower risk peers. By the time they were 33 they were an average of 3 cm shorter.

The high risk group started to gain excess weight early in childhood after the age of 7 and continued to gain more weight, more quickly, than their peers. They were also likely to have shorter mothers and fatter fathers, to come from working class families, and to have had mothers who smoked during pregnancy.

For every one unit increase in the father's body mass index (BMI), an indicator of appropriate weight for height, the chances of the high risk combination in the children increased by about 7%.

And for every 1 cm increase in the mother's height, the chances of the high risk combination fell by around 5%.

The authors suggest that short stature in a mother probably reflects unfavourable life circumstances, the detrimental effects of which seem to constrain the growth of her unborn children.

Source: Diabetes In Control.com: Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.2003; 57: 969-73.

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