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Low birthweight and Type 2 diabetes: a study on 11 162 Swedish twins
A Iliadou1, S Cnattingius, P Lichtenstein
1Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden. Anastasia.iliadou@meb.ki.se
Background:
To investigate the association between low birthweight and diabetes in a population-based Swedish twin sample. Method A cohort of 11 162 same-sexed Swedish twins born between 1906 and 1958 was used in order to investigate the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes between and within twin pairs by utilizing random effects linear models.
Results:
Between pairs there was a significant increase in risk of developing Type 2 diabetes for a 1-kg increase in their mean birthweight (odds ratio [OR] = 2.13; P < 0.01), adjusted for age, sex, body mass index (BMI), and smoking status. The corresponding risk within pair was 2.03 (P = 0.07) for monozygotic twins and 1.15 (P = 0.71) for dizygotic twins. The test of the heterogeneity of the within and between effects showed no significant difference between the estimates.
Conclusions:
The study suggests that reduced fetal growth increase the risk of Type 2 diabetes due to an in utero programming effect possibly caused by intrauterine malnutrition. However, it does not exclude the possibility of a common genetic mechanism.
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