Low birth weight and catch-up-growth associated with metabolic syndrome: a ten year systematic review

We conducted a systematic review in order to: i. summarize the relationship between low birth weight, catch-up-growth and the metabolic syndrome, from publications during the past 10 years; and ii. study the potential role of an alternative nutritional approach to side effects of catch-up-growth.

We reviewed all papers published in the past ten years assessing the possible association between low birth weight, catch-up-growth and the occurrence of some components of the metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, dyslipidemia and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

We found 57 studies which described the relationship between metabolic syndrome associated features and low birth weight and catch-up-growth. The majority of the studies in children, adolescents and adults born small for gestational age (SGA) suggested that insulin resistance could represent the prelude to other metabolic disorders.

Both low birth weight and catch-up-growth seem to correlate with some aspects of a later metabolic syndrome.