Association between birth weight and serum lipid concentration in premenopausal Japanese women

The relationships between birth weight and serum lipid concentrations in pre-menopausal Japanese women were not well identified and also diet and serum hormone status in these women would be considered.

A total of 59 premenopausal Japanese women completed a self-administered questionnaire including basic demographic information, disease histories, and menstrual and reproductive histories. They were asked to obtain information on birth weight recorded in mother-and-baby notebook issued by municipality from their mother. Diet was assessed by daily diet records from day 2 through day 10 of the menstrual cycle. Blood sample was collected on day 11 of the cycle to measure serum lipid and hormone concentrations (total and high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterols, triglyceride, estrone, estradiol, and sex hormone-binding globulin).

Birth weight was significantly correlated with HDL cholesterol (r = 0.32, p = 0.03), but not with total cholesterol and triglyceride after controlling for age. Neither estrogen nor sex hormone-binding globulin was significantly correlated with serum lipid concentrations after controlling for age and the number of days prior to the next menses. The correlation between birth weight and HDL cholesterol was not affected after additional adjustment for serum estrogen and intakes of protein, calcium, and iron.

These data suggest that intrauterine growth may be associated with lipid profile.