Premature Birth and Poor Fetal Growth Lead to Diabetes in Adulthood

It has been known that low birth weight is associated with higher risk of diabetes in later life, says Dr. Magnus Kaijser and her colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. New studies, however, showed diabetes is linked to poor fetus development and premature birth.

Scientists looked at a group of people born prematurely or underweighed from 1925 to 1949. They further compared the number of diabetes cases in this group with that in a control group of people who were born at full term and had normal weight.

The study involved 6425 people. Of these, 2931 were born before the term and 2176 had a low birth weight. Researchers found that those who were born prematurely had 67% higher risk of diabetes than those born at full term. Similarly, low birth weight increased the risk of diabetes by 76%.

Therefore, low birth weight and risk diabetes come from poor fetal development and premature birth.

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